Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

blood, sweat and tears

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.94 in modern English

Syllables
blood-, sweat and tears
IPA
25
Scrabble Score
18
Letters
2
Syllables
11
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A person's determination and hard work.

Example Sentences

Etymology

Popularized through a famous speech made by Winston Churchill to the House of Commons in 1940, with slight modification, but already present in earlier poetry. More information May be an extension of a much older Indo-European poetic formula “blood and tears”; compare e.g. Hittite 𒂊𒌍𒄩𒉌 𒅖𒄩𒄴𒊒𒌑𒄿 (e-eš-ḫa-ni iš-ḫa-aḫ-ru-ú-i, “in blood [and] in tear(s)”). It is common in Indo-European oral traditions to juxtapose three bodily substances pertaining to a certain theme, such as “flesh, bone and marrow” for the internal solids (cf. Calin (2017), pages 143–146).

Inflected Forms

blood, sweat, and tears (alternative)

Questions

What does blood, sweat and tears mean?
A person's determination and hard work.
Where does blood, sweat and tears come from?
Popularized through a famous speech made by Winston Churchill to the House of Commons in 1940, with slight modification, but already present in earlier poetry. More information May be an extension of a much older Indo-European poetic formula “blood and tears”; compare e.g. Hittite 𒂊𒌍𒄩𒉌 𒅖𒄩𒄴𒊒𒌑𒄿 (e-eš-ḫa-ni iš-ḫa-aḫ-ru-ú-i, “in blood [and] in tear(s)”). It is common in Indo-European oral traditions to juxtapose three bodily substances pertaining to a certain theme, such as “flesh, bone and marrow” for the internal solids (cf. Calin (2017), pages 143–146).

How to pronounce blood, sweat and tears

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “blood, sweat and tears”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
  3. Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “blood, sweat and tears”.
  4. Repeat and practice — Say “blood, sweat and tears” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.