stone
/stoʊ̯n/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.80 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A hard earthen substance that can form rocks; especially, such substance when regarded as a building material.
Uncountable
noun
A unit of weight equal to 14 pounds (≈6.3503 kilograms), formerly used for various commodities (wool, cheese, etc.), but now principally used for personal weight. Abbreviated as st.
British usage; Countable; Uncountable
noun
The central part of some fruits, particularly drupes; consisting of the seed and a hard endocarp layer.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A playing piece made of any hard material, used in various board games such as backgammon and go.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Toad, that vnder cold ſtone, / Dayes and Nights ha’s thirty one: / Sweltred Venom ſleeping got, / Boyle thou firſt i’th’ charmed pot."
- "The first day of the weeke, commeth Mary Magdalene earely when it was yet darke, vnto the Sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the Sepulchre."
- "It is about 2,500 yards in circuit, is built of red stone, and, according to Von Orlich, is now " a bastioned quinquangle ; the ancient walls with semicircular bastions face the two streams ; the land side is quite regular, and consists of two bastions, and a half-bastion with three ravelins," and stands higher than any ground in face of it."
- "The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll."
- "A railway station which formerly stood a few miles from Sydney has recently been demolished, stone by stone, and has been re-erected as a church in the Australian Capital Territory of Canberra, about 200 miles away."
- "[…]Ineſtimable Stones, vnvalewed Iewels[…]"
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- Proto-Indo-European *steyh₂- Proto-Indo-European *-nos Proto-Indo-European *stóyh₂nos Proto-Germanic *stainaz Proto-West Germanic *stain Old English stān Middle English ston English stone From Middle English ston, stone, stan, from Old English stān, from Proto-West Germanic *stain, from Proto-Germanic *stainaz (“stone”), from Proto-Indo-European *steyh₂- (“to stiffen”). Cognates Cognate with Scots stane (“stone”), Yola sthoan (“stone”), North Frisian stean, stian, stiin, stiinj (“stone”), Saterland Frisian Steen (“stone”), West Frisian stien (“stone”), Alemannic German Steei (“rock, stone”), Bavarian Staa (“rock, stone”), Central Franconian Steen, Stään (“stone”), Dutch steen (“stone”), German Stein (“rock, stone”), German Low German Steen, Stein (“stone”), Luxembourgish Steen (“stone”), Vilamovian śtan (“stone”), Yiddish שטיין (shteyn, “stone”), Danish and Swedish sten (“stone”), Elfdalian stien (“stone”), Faroese steinur (“stone”), Gutnish stain (“rock, stone”), Icelandic steinn (“rock, stone”), Norwegian Bokmål stein, sten (“stone”), Norwegian Nynorsk steidn, stein (“stone”), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (stains, “stone”). Compare also Ancient Greek στία (stía, “pebble”), στέαρ (stéar, “tallow”), Lithuanian sténgti (“to be able, make an effort; to oppose”), Russian стена́ (stená, “wall”), Albanian shtëng (“hardened or pressed matter”), Sanskrit स्तिया (stiyā, “still or stagnant water”). Doublet of stain, stean, and stein.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /stoʊ̯n/
- British English: /stəʊ̯n/
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Medicine, People.