ashlar
/ˈæʃlɚ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 1.98 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Masonry employing flat and well-squared stone or brick, creating an appearance similar to wooden flooring.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "The four main spans across the waterway are carried on ashlar piers founded on Memel timber piles."
- "Even as I babbled, Jock's massy frame filled the doorway, his ill-hewn ashlar head weaving from side to side, eyes blinking at the light."
- "By the Augustan period, however, the old ashlar circuit with its earthen agger was beginning to be dismantled in some places."
- "The building, in a plain Tudor Gothic style, has a central door in chamfered ashlar surround."
- "And from the choir itself, where the big hoist was working, came the shouts of the men sweating at the great wheel that swung the cut stones skyward, and the men high overhead on the hurdle-walks, waiting to receive the swinging ashlars and guide them into place."
Etymology
From Middle English assheler, acheler, etc., from forms of Old French esselier (“wooden support, traverse beam”), from Medieval Latin ascelāris and assellāris (equivalent to a diminutive of early forms of ais (“plank”)), variant of *axillāris (attested only after the Renaissance), from Latin axilla (“little plank”) + -āris (“-ary: forming adjectives”), from axis (“axle, plank”) + -illa (“-ella: forming diminutives”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈæʃlɚ/
- British English: /ˈæʃlə/