petrify
/ˈpɛ.tɹəˌfaɪ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.67 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To turn to stone: to harden organic matter by permeating with water and depositing dissolved minerals.
Transitive verb
verb
To immobilize with fright.
verb
To become stone, or of a stony hardness, as organic matter by calcareous deposits.
Intransitive verb
Example Sentences
- "a river that petrifies any sort of wood or leaves"
- "Like Niobe we marble grow, / And petrify with grief."
- "Hopes, feelings, and passion, petrify one after another; the crust of experience soon hardens over the hidden past; and who, looking on the levelled and subdued exterior, could dream of the wreck and ravage that lies below?"
- "petrify a genius to a dunce"
- "A hideous fatalism, which ought, logically, to petrify your volition."
Etymology
From Middle French pétrifier, from Medieval Latin petrificāre, from Latin petra (“rock”), from Ancient Greek πέτρα (pétra, “rock”) + -ficāre, from facere (“do, make”), equivalent to petro- + -ify.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpɛ.tɹəˌfaɪ/