guilt
/ɡɪlt/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.13 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To cause someone to feel guilt, particularly in order to influence their behaviour.
Informal; Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "Appropriate guilt is experienced when we actually do something objectively wrong—for example, exploit another, betray a trust, and so on. […] Inappropriate guilt occurs from believing a lie and is resolved by an application of the truth."
- "He didn't want to do it, but his wife guilted him into it."
- "Shame based parents would have guilted him for expressing anger."
- "We don't have to be manipulated, guilted, coerced, or forced into anything."
- "But I won't be threatened or bribed or guilted into giving up something that's important to me."
- "Two silver monteths, two large fflaggons, two large tankards, two silver salvers, a voyder and a knyfe, two silver salts, two guilt bolls of the like size, one other boll, three silver bolls, in all 24 pieces guilt and unguilt."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-West Germanic *gulti? Old English gylt Middle English gilt English guilt From Middle English gilt, gult, from Old English gylt (“guilt, sin, offense, crime, fault”), of obscure origin. Possibly related with Old English ġieldan (“to pay, requite, punish”) (whence yield), from Proto-West Germanic *guldijā (whence Middle High German gülte (“debt, fee, financial duty”), Middle Low German gülde, German Gülte), from Proto-West Germanic *geldan (“to pay for”), from Proto-Germanic *geldaną (“to pay”). However, neither the Old English stem form nor its ending -t (instead of -d) fit the continental form.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɡɪlt/
- British English: /ɡɪlt/