top
/tɑp/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.57 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "His kite got caught at the top of the tree."
- "But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. […]The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window at the old mare feeding in the meadow below by the brook,[…]."
- "We flipped the machine onto its top."
- "To mount the V8, I simply placed it on its top, and then prepped the mobo/CPU for installation (applied thermal compound)."
- "Further weather information can be found at the top of your television screen."
- "Headings appear at the tops of pages."
Etymology
From Middle English top, toppe, from Old English topp (“top, highest part; summit; crest; tassel, tuft; (spinning) top, ball; a tuft or ball at the highest point of anything”), from Proto-West Germanic *topp, from Proto-Germanic *tuppaz (“braid, pigtail, end”), of unknown ultimate origin. Compare typologically Latin apex (<< Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep- (“to join, attach, fasten, fit”)). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Top (“top”), Cimbrian sòpf (“braid”), Dutch top (“top, summit, peak”), German Topp (“top of a mast”), Zopf (“braid, pigtail, plait, top”), Luxembourgish Zapp (“plait, tress”), Vilamovian cöp (“braid, plait”), Yiddish צאָפּ (tsop, “braid”), Danish top (“top”), Icelandic toppur (“top”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish topp (“top, peak, summit, tip”), Italian zuffa (“brawl”). The sense of a spinning toy is separated from this, obscurely related to Dutch top and dop in this sense, against Standard Dutch tol, and French toupie having this sense.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: top, topp, *topp, *tuppaz, -
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /tɑp/
- British English: /tɒp/