crane
/kɹeɪn/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.92 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any bird of the family Gruidae, large birds with long legs and a long neck which is extended during flight.
noun
A mechanical lifting machine or device, often used for lifting heavy loads for industrial or construction purposes.
Example Sentences
- "Aquatic birds of various kinds are very numerous, such as geese, darters (Flotus melanogaster), scissor-bills (Rhynchops nigra), adjutants (Leptoptilos argala), pelicans, cormorants, cranes (Grus antigone, in Burmese gyoja), whimbrels, plovers, and ibises."
- "Large cranes were virtually non-existent in the areas I worked with this truck, so we jacked everything on and off[.]"
- "and my bachelor's hearth is imbedded where by much craning of head and neck I can catch sight of a sycamore in the Square garden,"
- "Didcot had one definite pleasure. We knew that little boys would be going up and down the platform singing out, "Banbury cakes! Banbury cakes!" And mother would crane out and buy some, just to encourage the crew."
- "I'm gonna be a star and people will crane necks To get a glimpse of me and see if I am having sex"
- "What engines, what instruments are used in craning up a soul, sunk below the centre, to the highest heavens."
Etymology
From Middle English crane, from Old English cran (“crane”), from Proto-West Germanic *kran, *kranō, from Proto-Germanic *kranô (“crane”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerh₂- (“to cry hoarsely”). Cognate with Scots cran (“crane”), Dutch kraan (“crane”), German Low German Kroon (“crane”), German Kran (“crane”). The mechanical devices are named from their likeness to the bird.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /kɹeɪn/
- British English: /kɹeɪn/