levin
/ˈlɛvɪn/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.41 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "His soul was like the night around us now, dark, and sultry, and silent, but lighted up by the red levin of wrath and torn by the bellowings of thunder-passion."
- "And forth rith al so leuin fares."
- "[N]either blood in face nor life in hart / It left, but both did quite drye vp, and blaſt; / As percing leuin, which the inner part / Of euery thing conſumes, and calcineth by art."
- "[...] I think if some of those amongst whom he hurls the Greek fire of his sarcasm, and over whom he flashes the levin-brand of his denunciation, were to take his warnings in time – they or their seed might escape a fatal Ramoth-Gilead."
- "Never, elsewhen, from heaven when all serene / Fell there more levin-bolts; nor flamed so oft / Comets with curses fraught."
- "Tremendous bursts of electric discharge levined through the clouds or lit up their under surfaces and all the rain-soaked earth, […]"
Etymology
From Middle English levene. Spellings in Middle English and Early Modern English include leven, levin, levyn, leiven, and leyven. The earlier etymology is less clear. It is thought to be related to Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌿𐌷𐌼𐌿𐌽𐌹 (lauhmuni) (which see for some more), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright, to shine”). Possibly a regular reflex, possibly North Germanic loan, or possibly from a lost substrate.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- British English: /ˈlɛvɪn/