bowsprit

/ˈbəʊspɹɪt/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.94 in modern English

Scrabble Score

Letters

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Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

"There lay the Ghost, bow on to the beach, her splintered bowsprit projecting over the sand, her tangled spars rubbing against her side to the lift of the crooning waves. Something must be done, must be done."

First attested in late 13th century. Probably borrowed from Middle Low German bochspret, from boch (“bow of a ship”) + spret (“pole”) (related to Old English spreot and English sprout).

bowsprits (plural) bolesprit (alternative) boltsprit (alternative)

bowspritted

reefing bowsprit

Questions

How do you pronounce bowsprit?

The recorded pronunciation is /ˈbəʊspɹɪt/.

What does bowsprit mean?

Where does bowsprit come from?

First attested in late 13th century. Probably borrowed from Middle Low German bochspret, from boch (“bow of a ship”) + spret (“pole”) (related to Old English spreot and English sprout).

How to pronounce bowsprit

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “bowsprit”.

Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈbəʊspɹɪt/) so you know which sounds to aim for.

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