rung
/ˈɹɐ̞ŋ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.20 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A crosspiece forming a step of a ladder; a round.
noun
A crosspiece between legs of a chair.
verb
past participle of ring (only in senses related to a bell)
Example Sentences
- "One of its arms was a disabled flail which used to be wielded by Goodman Rigby, before his spouse worried him out of this troublesome world; the other, if I mistake not, was composed of the pudding stick and a broken rung of a chair, tied loosely together at the elbow."
- "the lowest rung of the society"
- "“I’m very proud that I’ve worked on every rung of the ladder,” Ashley says. “When you go to college, you don’t want to be a senior right away—you want to be a freshman.”"
- "With ecchoing Shouts the vaulted Chamber rung, / Belle Chuck was now the TOAST of ev'ry Tongue."
- "Mr. Seibels, in his testimony, said I rung him up to see about labels. He is very much mistaken. I rung him up to see about bottles."
- "So they rung him up, and the next day he came to me and wanted to know where that pitch was."
Etymology
From Middle English rung, from Old English hrung, from Proto-West Germanic *hrungu, from Proto-Germanic *hrungō. Cognate with Dutch rong (“pole, stanchion”), German Runge (“stake, pole, stanchion”), Gothic 𐌷𐍂𐌿𐌲𐌲𐌰 (hrugga, “a staff”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: rung, hrung, *hrungu, *hrungō
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɹɐ̞ŋ/