Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

sphingine

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English

Syllables: sph-ingine
IPA

15

Scrabble Score

9

Letters

2

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Sphinx-like.

noun

The amino alcohol 2-amino-octadecanol CH₃(CH₂)₁₅-CH(NH₂)-CH₂OH related to sphingosine; any related amino alcohol

Countable; Uncountable

Example Sentences

"For whenever she asked him how much he had written, he regularly answered 'Nothing,' smiling at her meanwhile that courteous and Sphingine smile which Mrs Aldwinkle always found so baffling, so pre-eminently 'queer'."
"The word I was looking for, I suppose, was "sphingine" – I thought of the baleful prehistoric smile of the Mycenaean women."

Etymology

From (the stem of) Latin sphinx + -ine.

Word Breakdown

Suffix: ine

Usage

Inflected Forms

more sphingine (comparative) most sphingine (superlative) sphingines (plural)

Questions

What does sphingine mean?: Sphinx-like.
Where does sphingine come from?: From (the stem of) Latin sphinx + -ine.

How to pronounce sphingine

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