monkey puzzle
/ˈmʌŋkiˌpʌz(ə)l/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.71 in modern English
41
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
3
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A large coniferous tree, Araucaria araucana, native to Chile.
Example Sentences
- "They could see the small stone house where she used to live, with a monkey puzzle in front of it like a moustache."
- "Even those, such as the vicar, who might by education have been supposed to put a less superstitious valuation upon her character and who were too tolerant to believe ill of the stage profession in itself and in the proper place, could not believe its transplantation into a village to be right or desirable. His sense of the fitness of things was as outraged as if a parishioner had suggested planting a monkey-puzzle over a mother's grave."
- "Harry had always wanted a cedar tree on the lawn, as there had been in his old home, but had done the best he could by planting a monkey-puzzle, which was said to be quicker growing."
- "While I am planting a monkey puzzle in the front garden in his memory, an old man stops and tells me he remembers, in his wild far-off youth, climbing a monkey puzzle for a bet – 'A great tall thing' – and being lacerated to pieces by the spikes."
- "Two days later I took it to the former manse, a solid grey stately Victorian building with a tall monkey puzzle tree on the lawn."
- "In the late afternoon, I went for a walk along a monkey puzzle-lined trail."
Etymology
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈmʌŋkiˌpʌz(ə)l/
- British English: /ˈmʌŋkiˌpʌz(ə)l/