spleen
/spliːn/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.14 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
In vertebrates, including humans, a ductless vascular gland, located in the upper left abdomen near the stomach, which destroys old red blood cells, removes debris from the bloodstream, acts as a reservoir of blood, and produces lymphocytes.
Countable; Uncountable
verb
To complain; to rail; to vent one's spleen.
Example Sentences
- "In noble minds some dregs remain, / Not yet purged off, of spleen and sour disdain."
- "Too many, however, who might take an honourable stand, fear the petty spleen of the plantocracy; preferring the most disgusting adulation, to the blessing of him ready to perish."
- "The name I like best, however, I heard uttered by the Eldest Son of the House of Chou, who in a moment of spleen referred to his colleague of the House of Liang as hsiao chu-tan, the Little Pig’s Egg."
- "Sullen now, with stultified spleen, Mrs Dibble grappled her crutches and levered herself upright after an ungainly struggle."
- "A thousand spleens bear her a thousand ways. Brief as the lightning in the collied night; That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and Earth"
- "Bodies changed to various forms by spleen."
Etymology
From Middle English splene, splen, from Anglo-Norman espleen and Old French esplein, esplen, from Latin splēn (“milt”), from Ancient Greek σπλήν (splḗn, “the spleen”). Doublet of lien. Partially displaced the native English term milt.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: splene, espleen, esplein, splēn, σπλήν