rust
/ɹʌst/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.74 in modern English
4
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The deteriorated state of iron or steel as a result of moisture and oxidation; it consists mostly of iron(III) oxide (ferric oxide) and iron(II) oxide (ferrous oxide).
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "The rust on my bicycle chain made cycling to work very dangerous."
- "copper rust"
- "The patio furniture had rusted in the wind-driven spray."
- "Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire."
- "The relegation of locomotives to storage seemed to be on a very unsystematic basis on all three principal Irish railways: while one member of a class was rusting in a yard, another might be hard at work in revenue-earning service—[…]."
- "The wind-driven spray had thoroughly rusted the patio furniture."
Etymology
From Middle English rust, rost, roust, from Old English rust, rūst (“rust”), from Proto-West Germanic *rust, from Proto-Germanic *rustaz (“rust”), from Proto-Indo-European *rudʰso- (“red”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rewdʰ- (“red”). Cognate with Scots roust (“rust”), Saterland Frisian rust (“rust”), West Frisian roast (“rust”), Dutch roest (“rust”), German Rost (“rust”), Danish rust (“rust”), Swedish rost (“rust”), Norwegian rust, ryst (“rust”), Finnish ruoste, Estonian rooste. Related to red.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *h₁rewdʰ-, rust, *rust, *rustaz, *rudʰso-, rusten
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɹʌst/
- British English: /ɹʌst/