tinman
/ˈtɪn.mæn/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.65 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An uncaring or heartless man; a man lacking, or seeming to lack, feelings, emotions, or concern for others.
noun
A master gene in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, whose absence causes the fly to develop without a heart.
name
A surname.
Example Sentences
- "He seemed to feel quite at home at the tinman's, although they were hammering and tapping away there all day, but people said that the gudewife put a dish of porridge up in the garret for him every Thursday evening; and it's no wonder that they got on well and became rich when they had a brownie in the house."
- "But if there are gipsies or tinmen about we shall have to keep our eyes open after anything they can lay their hands on."
- "Tinman belongs to a special class of genes. [...] But some genes make proteins that control other genes. Some act like master switches, triggering many different genes to work together to build a structure. Tinman is one such “master gene” for the fruit fly."
Etymology
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈtɪn.mæn/