proboscis
/pɹoʊˈbɑs(k)ɪs/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.39 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Don Caldwell, editor-in-chief of the site Know Your Meme, namechecks Brr Brr Patapim, “a proboscis monkey that is also a tree”, as one who made it to YouTube."
- "Unlike the proboscides of Lower brachyceran lineages, which are continuous with the head capsule and tend to dangle (Matsuda 1965), the proboscides of most cyclorrhaphan species are suspended by a membranous region and divided into three functional parts: the basiproboscis (rostrum), medioproboscis (haustellum), and distiproboscis (labellum), each of which is defined by internal muscles but also shares muscles with the other regions (Graham-Smith 1930; Lall and Davies 1971)."
Etymology
From Latin proboscis, from Ancient Greek προβοσκίς (proboskís, “elephant's trunk”) literally "means for taking food," from προ- (pro-, “before”) + βόσκω (bóskō, “to nourish, feed”), from the Proto-Indo-European root *gʷeh₃- from which also comes βοτάνη (botánē, “grass, fodder”).
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /pɹoʊˈbɑs(k)ɪs/
- British English: /pɹə(ʊ)ˈbɒs(k)ɪs/