excalibur
/ɛksˈkæ.lɪ.bɚ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.94 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
4
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
The legendary sword of King Arthur, having magical properties.
Example Sentences
- "Until recently, suppression of ethnicity has perhaps been the leading characteristic of the trend of thought of these Jewish intellectuals. Some, like Noam Chomsky and I. F. Stone, have been considered by some Jews to be so suppressed—or at least so overcompensating for their being Jewish—as to be regarded as anti-Semitic on some issues. Such men flaunt their universalism like Excaliburs of truth and objectivity."
- "And we would see fish swimming among the tall bulrushes that rose like Excaliburs out of the lake."
- "You and I, we are not alone, and our screwdrivers are our flashing Excaliburs as we sally forth to make small parts of the fragmented world whole again."
Etymology
From Middle English Excalaber, from Old French Escalibor, Escaliborc, prothetic form of Calliborc, alteration of Calibourne, from Medieval Latin Caliburnus (Geoffrey of Monmouth, ca. 1136), influenced by calibs (“steel”) (for chalybs), alteration of Old Welsh Caledbulch (compare modern Caledfwlch), compound of caled (“hard”) and bwlch (“cleft, crack”). Related to the Irish legendary sword Caladbolg, literally ‘hard-belly’, i.e. ‘voracious’.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: Excalaber, Escalibor, Caliburnus, Caledbulch