rough
/ɹʌf/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.49 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Approximate; hasty or careless; not finished.
adj
adj
Example Sentences
- "rough hands"
- "rough stone"
- "rough surface"
- "The rock was one of those tremendously solid brown, or rather black, rocks which emerge from the sand like something primitive. Rough with crinkled limpet shells and sparsely strewn with locks of dry seaweed, a small boy has to stretch his legs far apart, and indeed to feel rather heroic, before he gets to the top."
- "a rough copy"
- "a rough estimate"
Etymology
From Middle English rough, roughe, roȝe, row, rou, ru, ruȝ, ruh, from Old English rūg, rūh, from Proto-Germanic *rūhaz. Cognate with Scots ruch, rouch (“rough”), Saterland Frisian ruuch, rouch (“rough”), West Frisian rûch (“rough”), Low German ruuch (“rough”), Dutch ruig (“rough”), German rau(h) (“rough”), Danish ru (“uneven on the surface, "rough", "rugged"”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: rough, rūg, *rūhaz, -
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɹʌf/
- British English: /ɹʌf/
Usage
Inflected Forms
rougher (comparative)
roughest (superlative)
ruff (alternative, pronunciation spelling)
roughs (plural)
roughs (present, singular)
roughing (participle, present)
roughed (participle, past)
roughed (past)
more rough (comparative)
most rough (superlative)