moor
/moː/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.35 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An extensive waste covered with patches of heath, and having a poor, light (and usually acidic) soil, but sometimes marshy, and abounding in peat; a heath. (Compare bog, peatland, marsh, swamp, fen.)
noun
verb
To fix or secure (e.g. a vessel) in a particular place by casting anchor, or by fastening with ropes, cables or chains or the like.
Transitive verb
noun
A member of an ancient Amazigh people from Mauretania.
Example Sentences
- "A cold, biting wind blew across the moor, and the travellers hastened their step."
- "In her girlish age, she kept sheep on the moor."
- "the ruins yet resting in the wild moors"
- "And now, without a word of warning from the Ghost, they stood upon a bleak and desert moor, where monstrous masses of rude stone were cast about, as though it were the burial-place of giants; and water spread itself wheresoever it listed, or would have done so, but for the frost that held it prisoner; and nothing grew but moss and furze, and coarse rank grass."
- "The vessel moored in the stream."
- "They moored the boat to the wharf."
Etymology
From Middle English mor, from Old English mōr, from Proto-West Germanic *mōr, from Proto-Germanic *mōraz, from Proto-Indo-European *móri. Cognates include Welsh môr, Old Irish muir (from Proto-Celtic *mori); Scots muir, Dutch moer, Old Saxon mōr, Old Saxon mūr, German Moor and perhaps also Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐍂𐌴𐌹 (marei). See mere.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /moː/
- British English: /mɔː/