klaxon
/ˈklæksən/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.08 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A loud electric alarm or horn, especially as used in automobiles in the early 20th century.
Example Sentences
- "And she went so swiftly that he could only follow her to the door. The large shape of the car swallowed her up; and the car twisted softly around the little drive and away to the London road. Minutes later he heard its Klaxon, just one sharp keen, like the harsh cry of a sea-bird. …"
- "There was a motor car behind them now and it blasted into the truck noise and the dust with its klaxon again and again; then flashed on lights that showed the dust like a solid yellow cloud and surged past them in a whining rise of gears and a demanding, threatening, bludgeoning of klaxoning."
- "They could hear a lot more than they could see. But what they heard told them exactly nothing. There were the klaxons, which kept up their long, monotonous, insane growling protest all through the raid."
- "When the claxon sounded they immediately stopped what they were doing and uncovered the Oerlikon. Paddy, who was ammunition feeder, stood by while Jock trained the 20mm gun around."
- "Irenka was up front using the lavatory when the lights in the cabin went red and the klaxon sounded over the speakers."
- "He headed down the Embankment. It was noon precisely. Big Ben klaxoned the hour with blasts of servo whistle."
Etymology
From the trademark Klaxon, based on Ancient Greek κλάζω (klázō, “make a sharp sound; scream”). The word was coined by Franklyn Hallett Lovell Jr., the founder of the Lovell-McConnell Manufacturing Co. of Newark, New Jersey, USA, which in 1908 obtained a licence of the patent to the machine generating the sound from American inventor Miller Reese Hutchison (1876–1944).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: κλάζω
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈklæksən/
- British English: /ˈklæksən/