nod
/nɑd/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.74 in modern English
4
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "‘She has big breasts’, Chuck said. ‘Who? Patty? Oh yes.’ Hentman nodded. ‘Well, it’s that operation they give in Hollywood and New York. It’s more the rage now than the dilation, and she’s had that done, too.’"
- "By every wind that nods the mountain pine."
- "Frail snowdrops that together cling / and nod their helmets, smitten by the wing / of many a furious whirl-blast sweeping by."
- "They nodded their assent."
- "Even Homer nods."
- "Jones nods the ball back to his goalkeeper."
Etymology
From Middle English nodden, probably from an unrecorded Old English *hnodian (“to nod, shake the head”), from Proto-West Germanic *hnodōn, from Proto-Germanic *hnudōną (“to beat, rivet, pound, push”), from Proto-Indo-European *kendʰ-, from *ken- (“to scratch, scrape, rub”). Compare Old High German hnotōn (“to shake”), hnutten (“to shake, rattle, vibrate”) (> modern dialectal German notteln, nütteln (“to rock, move back and forth”)), Faroese njóða (“to clench a nail”), Icelandic hnjóða (“to rivet, clinch”), Faroese noða (“to double by bending”), Icelandic hnoða (“to clinch, rivet”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: nodden, *hnodian, *hnodōn, *hnudōną, *kendʰ-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /nɑd/
- British English: /nɒd/
Usage
- Intransitive verb
- Transitive verb
- Slang
- American usage