carious
/ˈkɛəi.əs/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 1.52 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "[I]f no Acid be contain’d in the Blood how comes it, I beſeech you, that in Carious or Virulent Ulcers, the Silver Probe becomes inſtantly of a Livid Colour, which can only be effected by an Acid not an Alkalous Menſtruum?"
- "Our disease is democracy. It is not the skin that festers—our very bones are carious, and their marrow blackens with gangrene. Which rogues shall be first, is of no moment—our republicanism must die, and I am sorry for it."
- "My father’s museum contained several preparations of carious teeth."
- "Many chinchillas suffer from carious-like changes of the cheek teeth and odontoclastic resorptions close to the gingiva[…]. While carious defects typically lead to localized, brownish discolorations of the occlusal surface and the interproximal area, odontoclastic resorption of the teeth is characterized more by an appearance of the lateral surfaces of the teeth resembling moth damage[…]."
Etymology
From French carieux (“carious”), from carie (“decay (of bone or teeth)”) (from Latin cariēs (“rot, rottenness, corruption”), from careō (“to lack, be deprived of”), from Proto-Italic *kazēō (“to lack”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ḱes- (“to cut”).) + French -eux (“-ous”) (from Latin -ōsus (“full of, prone to”), from Old Latin -ōsos, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *-went-, *-wont- + *-to-)).
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
- Root: carieux, cariēs, *kazēō, *ḱes-, -eux, -ōsus
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈkɛəi.əs/
- British English: /ˈkɛəɹi.əs/
Inflected Forms
more carious (comparative)
most carious (superlative)