cave
/keɪv/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.20 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A large, naturally-occurring cavity formed underground or in the face of a cliff or a hillside.
noun
A storage cellar, especially for wine or cheese.
noun
A shielded area where nuclear experiments can be carried out.
noun
Debris, particularly broken rock, which falls into a drill hole and interferes with drilling.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "We found a cave on the mountainside where we could take shelter."
- "The preposterous altruism too![…]Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog."
- "Every boy at one time or another has dug a cave; I suppose because ages and ages ago his ancestors had to live in caves, […]"
- "This wine has been aged in our cave for thirty years."
- "My room was a cozy cave where I could escape from my family."
- "It was not strictly a cave, but a narrow fissure in the rock."
Etymology
From Middle English cave, borrowed from Old French cave, from Latin cava (“cavity”), from cavus (“hollow”). Cognate with Tocharian B kor (“throat”), Albanian cup (“odd, uneven”), Ancient Greek κύαρ (kúar, “eye of needle, earhole”), Old Armenian սոր (sor, “hole”), Sanskrit शून्य (śūnya, “empty, barren, zero”). Displaced native Old English sċræf. More at cavum, cavus and cage.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /keɪv/
- British English: /keɪv/
Usage
- Uncountable
- Slang
- Obsolete
- British usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
Aladdin's cave
Blackfellows Caves
blowing cave
breathing cave
cave art
cave bat
cave bear
cave cricket