meadow
/ˈmɛd.oʊ̯/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.60 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A field or pasture; a piece of land either intentionally cultivated with grass or (especially) naturally covered with grass, especially one that is intended to be mown for hay or to be grazed.
noun
Low land covered with coarse grass or rank herbage near rivers and in marshy places by the sea.
verb
To cultivate with grass in order to produce hay.
name
A number of places in the United States:
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A number of places in the United States:
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A number of places in the United States:
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A number of places in the United States:
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A number of places in the United States:
Example Sentences
- "alpine meadows"
- "But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. […]The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window at the old mare feeding in the meadow below by the brook,[…]."
- "[…]belts of thin white mist streaked the brown plough land in the hollow where Appleby could see the pale shine of a winding river. Across that in turn, meadow and coppice rolled away past the white walls of a village bowered in orchards,[…]"
- "Our part of the veranda did not hang over the gorge, but edged the meadow where half a dozen large and sleek horses had stopped grazing to join us."
- "the salt meadows near Newark Bay"
- "European adventurers found themselves within a watery world, a tapestry of streams, channels, wetlands, lakes and lush riparian meadows enriched by floodwaters from the Mississippi River."
Etymology
From Middle English medowe, medewe, medwe (also mede > Modern English mead), from Old English mǣdwe, inflected form of mǣd (see mead), from Proto-Germanic *mēdwō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂met- (“to mow, reap”), enlargement of *h₂meh₁-. Related to mead (“meadow”) and to math (“mowed result or area”). More at mow. Cognates Cognate with Yola mead (“meadow”), Saterland Frisian Mäid (“meadow”), West Frisian miede (“meadow”), Dutch made (“hayland, meadow”), German Matte (“meadow”); also Cornish mysi (“to harvest; to mow”), Welsh medi (“to reap”), Latin metō (“to harvest, reap; to cut; to mow”), Ancient Greek ἄμητος (ámētos, “harvest”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈmɛd.oʊ̯/
- British English: /ˈmɛd.əʊ̯/