Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

bastille

/bæˈstil/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.04 in modern English

Syllables: Bast-ille
IPA: /bæˈstil/

10

Scrabble Score

8

Letters

2

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

name

A former fortress and prison in Paris, France, the storming of which in 1789 began the French Revolution.

noun

Chiefly in French contexts: a bastion (“projecting part of a rampart or other fortification”) or tower of a castle; also, a fortified tower or other building; or a small citadel or fortress.

noun

A jail or prison, especially one regarded as mistreating its prisoners.

noun

Synonym of workhouse (“an institution for homeless poor people funded by the local parish, where the able-bodied were required to work”).

British usage; Derogatory

noun

The fortified encampment of an army besieging a place; also, any of the buildings in such an encampment.

verb

To confine (someone or something) in, or as if in, a bastille (noun sense 2.1) or prison; to imprison.

Transitive verb

Example Sentences

"H' incounters Talgol, routs the Bear, / And takes the Fidler Prisoner; / Conveys him to enchanted Castle, / There shuts him fast in wooden Bastile."
"Thither arriv'd th' advent'rous Knight / And bold Squire from their Steeds alight, / At th' outward Wall, near which [there] stands / A Bastile built t'imprison hands; / By strange enchantment made to fetter / The lesser parts, and free the greater. / For though the Body may creep through, / The Hands in Grate are fast enough."
"―The devil it is! ſaid I—but I vvill go to ten thouſand Baſtiles firſt— […]"
"But Nigel was somewhat immured within the Bastile of his rank, as some philosopher, (Tom Paine, we think,) has happily enough expressed that sort of shyness which men of dignified situations are apt to be beset with, […]"
"Whithersoever you choose; but by what means of conveyance[?] […] Shall it be the Great Northern, hard by Battle Bridge and Pentonville's frowning bastille?"
"VVhen they ſhould have ſtood to it in field, and fought, then they fled back to their tends: vvhen they vvere to guard and defend their trench and rampart, they ſurrendered them to the enemy: good no vvhere, neither in battel nor in baſtil."

Etymology

Borrowed from French Bastille, from bastille (“fortress”): see further at the English entry bastille. The building was known in full as the Bastille Saint-Antoine, and was a former fortress used as a prison by the French monarchy in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Origin

Source language: French

Word Breakdown

Root: Bastille, bastile, baastel, -īle, bastida, *bastijan

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /bæˈstil/
British English: /bæˈstiːl/

Usage

Inflected Forms

the Bastille (canonical) Bastile (alternative, obsolete) bastilles (plural) bastile (alternative) bastilles (present, singular) bastilling (participle, present) bastilled (participle, past) bastilled (past)

Derived Forms

Steel bastle

Phrases

Bastille Day bastle house

Frequently Paired Words

bastille Bastille Day bastion

Synonyms

workhouse bang up bastille clap up confine gaol incarcerate immure imprison jail lock up mew up

Questions

How do you pronounce bastille?: The recorded pronunciation is /bæˈstil/.
What does bastille mean?: A former fortress and prison in Paris, France, the storming of which in 1789 began the French Revolution.
Where does bastille come from?: It is traced to French.

How to pronounce bastille

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “bastille”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/bæˈstil/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
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