orphan
/ˈɔɹfən/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.58 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A person, especially a minor, whose parents have permanently abandoned them.
noun
Anything that is unsupported, as by its source, provider or caretaker, by reason of the supporter's demise or decision to abandon.
noun
Example Sentences
- "Rudolf was the bold, bad Baron of traditional melodrama. Irene was young, as pretty as a picture, fresh from a music academy in England. He was the scion of an ancient noble family; she an orphan without money or friends."
- "An orphan isn't harmful in a language that has garbage collection, such as Java. However, reducing the number of orphans can be expected to improve code performance."
- "She is an orphan child."
- "With its government funding curtailed, the gun registry became an orphan program."
- "What do you do when you come across two orphaned polar bear cubs?"
- "When you removed that image tag, you orphaned the resized icon."
Etymology
Late Middle English, from Late Latin orphanus, from Ancient Greek ὀρφανός (orphanós, “without parents, fatherless”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃órbʰos. PIE word *h₃órbʰos Cognate with Sanskrit अर्भ (árbha), Latin orbus (“orphaned”), Old Armenian որբ (orb, “orphan”), Old High German erbi, arbi (German Erbe (“heir”)), Old English ierfa (“heir”). More at erf.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *h₃erbʰ-, -, orphanus, ὀρφανός, *h₃órbʰos
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɔɹfən/
- British English: /ˈɔːfən/
Usage
Inflected Forms
orphans (plural)
orphane (alternative, obsolete)
orphans (present, singular)
orphaning (participle, present)
orphaned (participle, past)
orphaned (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
orphaned (first person, past)
orphanest (archaic, present)
orphaned (past, second person)
orphanedst (archaic, past)