Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

runt

/ɹʌnt/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.47 in modern English

Syllables: runt
IPA: /ɹʌnt/

4

Scrabble Score

4

Letters

1

Syllables

4

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

The smallest animal of a litter.

noun

The smallest child in the family.

noun

Undersized or stunted plant, animal or person.

noun

An uninfluential or unimportant person; a nobody.

Slang

noun

An Ethernet packet that does not meet the medium's minimum packet size of 64 bytes.

noun

A single word (or portion of a hyphenated word) that appears as the last line of a paragraph.

noun

A breed of pigeon related to the carrier pigeon.

noun

A hardened stem or stalk of a plant.

British usage; Obsolete

Example Sentences

"Sometimes, as we have seen, one member of a litter is a runt, much smaller than the rest. He is unable to fight for food as strongly as the rest, and runts often die. We have considered the conditions under which it would actually pay a mother to let a runt die."
"the runt of the family"
"Neither young poles nor old runts are durable"

Etymology

The OED classifies this word as "of obscure origin". Some see a connection to Middle Dutch runt (“ox”), but the OED considers this to be unlikely. Possibly connected to Icelandic hrotti meaning "brute".

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /ɹʌnt/
British English: /ɹʌnt/

Usage

Slang
British usage
Obsolete

Inflected Forms

runts (plural)

Derived Forms

runted runting runtish runtling runty

Phrases

kale runt runt disease runt of the litter

Synonyms

dwarf shrimp peewee half-pint

Rhymes With

want doesn't front hunt aunt wont blunt cunt stunt confront rex hunt punt

Questions

How do you pronounce runt?: The recorded pronunciation is /ɹʌnt/.
What does runt mean?: The smallest animal of a litter.
Where does runt come from?: The OED classifies this word as "of obscure origin". Some see a connection to Middle Dutch runt (“ox”), but the OED considers this to be unlikely. Possibly connected to Icelandic hrotti meaning "brute".

How to pronounce runt

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “runt”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ɹʌnt/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “runt”.
Repeat and practice — Say “runt” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.