blunt
/blʌnt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.90 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Dull in understanding; slow of discernment; opposed to acute.
adj
Abrupt in address; plain; unceremonious; wanting in the forms of civility; rough in manners or speech.
adj
Slow or deficient in feeling: insensitive.
Example Sentences
- "The murderous knife was dull and blunt."
- "The dinghy was trailing astern at the end of its painter, and Merrion looked at it as he passed. He saw that it was a battered-looking affair of the prahm type, with a blunt snout, and like the parent ship, had recently been painted a vivid green."
- "The face which emerged was not reassuring. It was blunt and grey, the nose springing thick and flat from high on the frontal bone of the forehead, whilst his eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue. […]."
- "His wits are not so blunt."
- "I was taken aback by the blunt admission that he had never liked my company."
- "a plain, blunt man"
Etymology
From Middle English blunt, blont, from Old English *blunt, probably of North Germanic origin, possibly related to Old Norse blunda (“to shut eyes, to doze”), related to blind (> Icelandic blunda, Swedish blunda, Danish blunde). Compare the Scandinavian-German munitons term blind (“non-live, dummy”), opposite of skarp (“live”, literally, “sharp”): Swedish and Danish blind patron (“dummy round”), Danish blindt skud, German blinder schuss (“dummy shot”), blinde granate (“dummy grenade”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /blʌnt/
- British English: /blʌnt/
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in People.