holly
/ˈhɑli/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.88 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any of various shrubs or (mostly) small trees, of the genus Ilex, either evergreen or deciduous, used as decoration especially at Christmas.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
Any of several not closely related plant species likened to Ilex because of their prickly, evergreen foliage and/or round, bright-red berries
Countable; Uncountable
name
A female given name from English.
name
A topographic surname from Middle English.
name
A male given name transferred from the surname.
name
A place in the United States:
name
A place in the United States:
Example Sentences
- "We'll deck the halls with boughs of holly."
- "Have a tree or two the witches particularly like, such as the alder, larch, cypress and hemlock; then, to counteract any possible evil effects, there must be a holly, yew, hazel, elder, mountain ash or juniper."
- "Grandma said, "I used to know a little girl called Holly - she always had her dresses trimmed with red or green." Milly-Molly-Mandy thought that was quite a nice name."
- ""Holly, would you mind if I named my little girl 'Holly'? I mean, it's right around Christmas time, and I always think of holly with Christmas."
- "The bodies of 19-year-old best friends Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones were returned to Australia on Tuesday night."
Etymology
From Middle English holly, holi, holie, a shortened variation of holin, holyn (> English dialectal hollen, holm), from Old English holeġn, holen (“holly; prince, protector”), from Proto-West Germanic *hulis (“holly”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₂- (“to beat, break”). Cognates Cognate with Scots holin, hollin, holyn (“holly”), Dutch hulst (“holly”), German Hulst (“holly”), French houx ("holly" < Germanic), Danish hylver (“holly”), Welsh celyn (“holly”), Russian ко́лос (kólos, “ear of wheat”), Albanian kalli (“straw, chaff”), Latin culmus (“stalk, stem”), Sanskrit कटम्ब (kaṭamba, “arrow”), Old Church Slavonic класъ (klasŭ, “ear of grain”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈhɑli/
- British English: /ˈhɒli/