thud
/ˈθʌd/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.90 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A slower, dull impact with a wide surface area.
Example Sentences
- "These were but the thoughts of a second, but the voices were nearer, and I heard a dull thud far up the passage, and knew that a man had jumped down from the churchyard into the hole."
- "Ramos had locked Salah’s right arm and turned him, judo-style, as they lost balance going for the same ball. Television replays hardened the suspicion it was a calculated move on Ramos’s part and, when Salah landed with a hell of a thud, the damage was considerable."
- "Sinclair told the B.A.R. [Bay Area Reporter] he felt the thud of the pistol on his left cheek about a 100 feet from his car, […]"
- "Pillowcase whippings offer the look and feel of a flagellatio scene’s atmosphere, mood, and psychology while involving only very mild amounts of pain. (A pillowcase is almost all “thud” and very little “sting” in the sensations it creates.)"
- "It still wasn’t what I’d call painful but as he swung his arm and the strands of the flogger hit me together it felt like a solid thud rather than a number of different tails stinging me."
- "At the same instant two arrows thudded into the carcass of the deer over which he knelt, passing but a few inches from his head."
Etymology
From Middle English thudden (“to strike with a weapon”), from Old English þyddan (“to strike, press, thrust”), from Proto-Germanic *þuddijaną, *þiudijaną (“to strike, thrust”), from Proto-Germanic *þūhaną, *þeuhaną (“to press”), from Proto-Indo-European *tūk- (“to beat”). Cognate with Old English þoddettan (“to strike, push, batter”), Old English þȳdan (“to strike, stab, thrust, press”), Old English þēowan (“to press”), Albanian thundër (“a hoof, talon, a shaft", figuratively, "oppression, torment”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: thudden, þyddan, *þuddijaną, *þūhaną, *tūk-
Usage
- Intransitive verb
- American usage
- Dated
- Slang