Wordwyrt

balloon

/bəˈluːn/buh-LOON
/bəˈlun/buh-LOON

Meaninga ball

Common meaning: inflated bag, often for flying

Journey through time

  1. Germanball‘a ball’source
  2. Frenchballon‘large ball’source
  3. Englishmeaning shiftslarge ball → inflated bag, often for flyingballoon‘inflated bag, often for flying’ · today

Sources & notes

Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.

Pronunciation

  • UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
  • No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
  • US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
  • No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.

Origin: Built on German ball ‘a ball’.

Did you know: our wording, based on Skeat, Etymological Dictionary (1898), entry BALLOON, p. 49 · dictionary scan

Roots

  • ball German “a ball”

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