both
[boʊθ]
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: 5.79 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
det
Each of the two; one and the other; referring to two individuals or items.
pron
Each of the two, or of the two kinds.
name
A surname.
Example Sentences
- "Both (the/my) children are such dolls."
- "Which one do you need? ―I need both of them."
- "Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech; and both of them made a covenant."
- "He will not bear the loss of his rank, because he can bear the loss of his estate; but he will bear both, because he is prepared for both."
- "Around a third of both Black and White respondents said they believed the opposition Labour Party to be institutionally racist."
- "The proof (Tables 9 and 10) of idempotence for both OR and AND follows from examining the definition of each operation under the constraint that both inputs have the same value."
Etymology
From Middle English bothe, boþe, from Old English bā þā (“both the; both those”) and possibly reinforced by Old Norse báðir, from Proto-Germanic *bai. Cognate with Saterland Frisian bee (“both”), West Frisian beide (“both”), Dutch beide (“both”), German beide (“both”), Swedish både, båda, Danish både, Norwegian både, Icelandic báðir. Replaced Middle English bō, from Old English bā, a form of Old English bēġen. A remnant of the Indo-European dual grammatical number.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: [boʊθ]
- British English: [bəʊθ]