split
/splɪt/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.65 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
Of something solid, particularly wood, to break along the grain fully or partly along a more or less straight line.
Intransitive verb
Example Sentences
- "He has split his lip."
- "a huge vessel of exceeding hard marble split asunder by congealed water"
- "The critical component of the photosynthetic system is the “water-oxidizing complex”, made up of manganese atoms and a calcium atom. This system splits water molecules and delivers some of their electrons to other molecules that help build up carbohydrates."
- "We split the money among three people."
- "Presently the 57-strong Class 378 fleet is split between the East London line and North London line, with 29 units allocated on the east side."
- "Let's split this scene and see if we can find a real party."
Etymology
Attested since about 1567, from Middle Dutch splitten (“to split”) and/or Middle Low German splitten (“to split”), both ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *splittjan, an intensive form of Proto-West Germanic *splītan (“to split”), from Proto-Germanic *splītaną (whence Danish splitte, Low German splieten, German spleißen), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pley- (“to split, splice”). Compare Middle English ysplett (“split”, past participle of splatten (“to split”)), Old English speld (“splinter”), Old High German spaltan (“to split”), Middle Irish slis (“splinter”), Lithuanian spaliai (“flax sheaves”), Czech půl (“half”), Old Church Slavonic рас-плитати (ras-plitati, “to cleave, split”).