stock
/stɑk/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.93 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The capital raised by a company through the issue of shares; the total of shares held by an individual shareholder.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "We have a stock of televisions on hand."
- "I checked in the back of the stockroom and found some more stock."
- "Lay in a stock of wood for the winter season."
- "The Grand Trunk Railway had just purchased a large order of stock from the American Car and Foundry Company."
- "Good ranchers must continually keep watch over the health of their stock."
- "[…] the open land is generally covered by a grass which grows in tussacs, and produces tufts of hard, crisp, pointed blades. Stock will never willingly eat this grass; […]"
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- Proto-Germanic *stikanąder. Proto-Germanic *stukkaz Proto-West Germanic *stokk Old English stocc Middle English stok English stock From Middle English stok, from Old English stocc, from Proto-West Germanic *stokk, from Proto-Germanic *stukkaz (“tree-trunk”). Modern senses are mostly referring either to the trunk from which the tree grows (figuratively, its origin and/or support/foundation), or to a piece of wood, stick, or rod. The senses of "supply" and "raw material" arose from a probable conflation with steck (“an item of goods, merchandise”) or the use of split tally sticks consisting of foil or counterfoil and stock to capture paid taxes, debts or exchanges. Doublet of chock.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /stɑk/
- British English: /stɒk/