liver
/ˈlɪvɚ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.18 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A large organ in the body that stores and metabolizes nutrients, destroys toxins and produces bile. It is responsible for thousands of biochemical reactions.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A dark brown colour, tinted with red and gray, like the colour of liver.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
Any of various chemical compounds—particularly sulfides—thought to resemble livers in color.
Countable; Obsolete; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Steve Jobs is a famous liver transplant recipient."
- "I'd like some goose liver pate."
- "You could fry up some chicken livers for a tasty treat. — Nah, I don't like chicken liver."
- ""I should think you've rocked the boat enough already by refusing to eat liver.""
- "He gave his horse some liver of antimony."
- "His friend Rothwell, who had the use of the best Laveracks for breeding purposes, wrote him that one of his puppies was liver and white."
Etymology
From Middle English lyvere, lyver, from Old English lifer (“liver”), from Proto-West Germanic *libru, from Proto-Germanic *librō, from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to smear, smudge, stick”), from Proto-Indo-European *ley- (“to be slimy, be sticky, glide”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Líeuwer, Lieuwer (“liver”),German Leber (“liver”), Danish, Dutch, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Swedish, and West Frisian lever (“liver”), Faroese livur (“liver”), Icelandic lifur (“liver”). Related to live.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈlɪvɚ/
- British English: /ˈlɪvə/