Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

bonehouse

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English

Syllables: bone-house
IPA

14

Scrabble Score

9

Letters

2

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

noun

noun

A building for holding the remains of the dead.

Example Sentences

"[…] beyond whatever - a comfort to consider those bones - Or run my hand over elastic frail ribcage, the woman I love, her pulse of desire. What store of affection inside the bonehouse? Tilt of the chin, and how her denim skirt falls to her shoes."
"A human body is not a house, says our logical mind. But as soon as we say this, the kenning urges us to consider or puzzle over why, after all, a human body in some special, important way is a house, and why moreover it is a 'bonehouse.'"
"The skylark is our souls, residing within our bodies (bonehouses)."
"What comes into your mind when you hear the word bonehouse? It sounds like a building ... But they used it to talk about something very different: the human body while still alive. It paints a wonderful picture."
"[…] but the poet, having moved through a landscape that is defined by images of barrenness and desolation — trees "lorn of all delicious apple," an empty house given over to "dust that filmed the deadened air," "the bonehouse of a rabbit," […]"

Etymology

From Old English bānhūs (“the body, the chest, breast”, literally “the bone-house”), equivalent to bone + house.

Origin

Source language: Old English

Word Breakdown

Root: bānhūs

Inflected Forms

bonehouses (plural)

Synonyms

ossuary

Questions

What does bonehouse mean?: A body.
Where does bonehouse come from?: It is traced to Old English.

How to pronounce bonehouse

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