bark
/bɑɹk/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.85 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "The neighbour's dog is always barking."
- "The seal barked as the zookeeper threw fish into its enclosure."
- "And therefore they bark, and say the scripture maketh heretics."
- "Where there is the barking of the belly, there no other commands will be heard, much less obeyed."
- "The sergeant barked an order."
- "Plainly he was prepared to bark out an interminable succession of charges against the Wanderer."
Etymology
From Middle English barken, berken, borken, from Old English beorcan (“to bark”), from the Proto-West Germanic *berkan (“to bark”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerg- (“to make a noise, growl, bark”), from *bʰer- (“to drone, hum, buzz”). Cognate with Icelandic berkja (“to bark, bluster”), Icelandic barki (“throat, windpipe”), dialectal Lithuanian burgė́ti (“to growl, grumble, grouch, quarrel”), Serbo-Croatian brbljati (“to murmur”). For the noun, compare Old English beorc, bearce (“barking”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /bɑɹk/
- British English: /bɑːk/
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Botany, Medicine.