plume
/ˈplum/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.19 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The vane (“flattened, web-like part”) of a feather, especially when on a quill pen or the fletching of an arrow.
noun
noun
noun
Example Sentences
- "Near-synonym: aigrette"
- "Under a Coronet his flowing haire / In curles on either cheek plaid, wings he wore / Of many a colourd plume ſprinkl'd with Gold, / His habit fit for ſpeed ſuccinct, and held / Before his decent ſteps a Silver wand."
- "The firſt thing that ſtruck Manfred’s eyes was a groupe of his ſervants endeavouring to raiſe ſomething that appeared to him a mountain of ſable plumes. […] [W]hat a ſight for a father’s eyes!—he beheld his child daſhed to pieces, and almoſt buried under an enormous helmet, an hundred times more large than any caſque ever made for human being, and ſhaded with a proportionable quantity of black feathers."
- "[T]he most valuable cargo carried by the Titanic wasn't diamonds or gold but 12 cases of ostrich plumes valued at $2.3 million in today's money."
- "Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!"
- "The fearful infant turn'd his head away, / And on his nurſe's neck reclining lay, / His unknown father ſhunning with affright, / And looking back on ſo uncouth a ſight; / Daunted to ſee a face with ſteel o'er-ſpread, / And his high plume that nodded o'er his head."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *plew- Proto-Indo-European *plewk-der. Proto-Indo-European *plewk-smeh₂ Proto-Italic *plouksmā Latin plūma Anglo-Norman plumebor. Middle English plume English plume From Late Middle English plum, plume (“feather; plumage”), from Anglo-Norman plum, plume, from Old French plume, plome (“feather, plumage”), from Latin plūma (“feather, plumage”) (compare Late Latin plūma (“pen, quill”)), from Proto-Italic *plouksmā, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (“to fly”). Doublet of pluma.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈplum/
- British English: /ˈpluːm/
Usage
Inflected Forms
plumes (plural)
plumes (present, singular)
pluming (participle, present)
plumed (participle, past)
plumed (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
plumed (first person, past)
plumest (archaic, present)
plumed (past, second person)
plumedst (archaic, past)
plumeth (archaic, present)