rain
/ɹeɪn/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.71 in modern English
4
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any matter moving or falling, usually through air, and especially if liquid or otherwise figuratively identifiable with raindrops.
Uncountable
name
A female given name.
Example Sentences
- "We've been having a lot of rain lately."
- "The rains came late that year."
- "This process involves cloud seeding – when various substances are put into clouds in an attempt to cause rain."
- "A rain of mortar fire fell on our trenches."
- "Judging by the black cloud, it will rain later today."
- "Tears rained from her eyes."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *Hréǵʰ-der. Proto-Indo-European *Hréǵʰnos? Proto-Germanic *regną Proto-West Germanic *regn Old English reġn Middle English reyn English rain Inherited from Middle English reyn, rein, from Old English reġn, from Proto-West Germanic *regn, from Proto-Germanic *regną, of uncertain origin. Possibly from pre-Germanic *Hréǵ-no-, from Proto-Indo-European *Hreǵ- (“to flow”), although the consonant reflexes don't match. Cognates Cognate with Yola rhyne, ryne (“rain”), North Frisian Riin, rin (“rain”), Saterland Frisian Rien (“rain”), West Frisian rein (“rain”), Dutch regen (“rain”), Limburgish raenger, Rään (“rain”), German Low German Regen, Ręgen, Rägen (“rain”), Luxembourgish Reen (“rain”), German Regen (“rain”), Mòcheno reng (“rain”), Vilamovian raan (“rain”), Alemannic German regu, räge, rägä (“rain”), Bavarian Regn, rein (“rain”), Cimbrian regan, réego, reng (“rain”), Yiddish רעגן (regn, “rain”), Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish regn (“rain”), Crimean Gothic reghen (“rain”), Gothic 𐍂𐌹𐌲𐌽 (rign, “rain”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɹeɪn/
- British English: /ɹeɪn/
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Law.
Inflected Forms
rains (plural)
rayne (alternative, obsolete)
raygne (alternative, obsolete)
rains (present, singular)
raining (participle, present)
rained (participle, past)
rained (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
rained (first person, past)
rainest (archaic, present)
rained (past, second person)
Derived Forms
Phrases
Also see terms derived from the verb
acid rain
black rain
blood rain
cold rain process
come rain or shine
come rain or snow
coronal rain