thorny
/ˈθɔɹni/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.93 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Troublesome or vexatious.
Example Sentences
- "Tara flour is one of two products made from the seed pods of a thorny shrub native to Peru. One of those, tara gum, has been used safely for years as a thickening agent or stabilizer in human foods."
- "thorny issues"
- "the steep and thorny way to heaven"
- "Westcott doesn’t even consider the thornier question of fan fiction based on real and often living people, for instance, the “bandslash” or “bandfic” phenomenon built around rock-star characters and often homoerotic subplots."
- "Six weeks into the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the thorniest issues surrounding the pact remain unresolved."
- "Museums have recently begun to confront the same thorny question, with several issuing public apologies for collecting the remains of people believed or known to have been enslaved."
Etymology
From Middle English thorny, þorny, þorni, from Old English þorniġ, from Proto-West Germanic *þornag. By surface analysis, thorn + -y.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: thorny, þorniġ, *þornag
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈθɔɹni/
- British English: /ˈθɔːni/
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Botany.
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
giant thorny-headed worm of swine
thorny broom
thorny burnet
thorny devil
thorny lacewing
thorny oyster
thorny restharrow
thorny trefoil