stare
/stɛɚ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.91 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To be very conspicuous on account of size, prominence, colour, or brilliancy.
Intransitive verb
noun
A persistent gaze.
name
A surname
name
A surname
Example Sentences
- "She found him staring with raised eyebrows at her."
- "Her sturdy stallion had now unbutton'd, and produced naked, stiff, and erect, that wonderful machine, which I had never seen before, and which, for the interest my own seat of pleasure began to take furiously in it, I star'd at with all the eyes I had"
- "A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; as, again, the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire. In fact, that arm-chair had been an extravagance of Mrs. Bunting. She had wanted her husband to be comfortable after the day's work was done, and she had paid thirty-seven shillings for the chair."
- "to stare a timid person into submission"
- "staring windows or colours"
- "Makest my blood cold, and my hair to stare."
Etymology
From Middle English staren, from Old English starian (“to stare”), from Proto-West Germanic *starēn, from Proto-Germanic *starjaną, *starāną (“to be fixed, be rigid”), from Proto-Indo-European *ster-. Cognate with Dutch staren (“to stare”), German starren (“to stare”), German starr (“stiff”). More at start.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /stɛɚ/
- British English: /stɛə/