hollow
/ˈhɑloʊ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.95 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Having an empty space or cavity inside.
adj
Distant, eerie; echoing, reverberating, as if in a hollow space; dull, muffled; often low-pitched.
adj
Without substance; having no real or significant worth; meaningless.
Example Sentences
- "He built himself a cabin in a hollow high up in the Rockies."
- "c. 1710–20, Matthew Prior, The First Hymn Of Callimachus: To Jupiter Forests grew upon the barren hollows."
- "This road leads through a sandy hollow shaded by trees for about a quarter of a mile, where it crosses the bridge famous in goblin story, and just beyond swells the green knoll on which stands the whitewashed church."
- "I hate the dreadful hollow behind the little wood, / Its lips in the field above are dabbled with blood-red heath, / The red-ribb'd hedges drip with a silent horror of blood, / And Echo there, whatever is ask'd her, answers 'Death.'"
- "[T]his is lonesome country; and here in the swamplike hollows where tiger lilies bloom the size of a man's head, there are luminous green logs that shine under the dark marsh water like drowned corpses ...""
- "He held the chick in the hollow of his hand."
Etymology
From Middle English holow, holowe, holwe, holwȝ, holgh, from Old English holh (“a hollow”), from Proto-West Germanic *holh, from Proto-Germanic *hulwiją, from Proto-Germanic *hulaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover, hide”). Cognate with Old High German huliwa and hulwa, Middle High German hülwe. Related to hole.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: holow, holh, *holh, *hulwiją, *hulaz, *ḱel-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈhɑloʊ/
- British English: /ˈhɒləʊ/