Wordwyrt

penthouse

/ˈpentˌhaʊs/PENT-hows
/ˈpɛntˌhaʊs/PENT-hows

Meaningan appendage

Common meaning: an upmarket apartment on a building’s highest floor

Journey through time

  1. Latinappendicium‘an appendage’source
  2. Old Frenchapentissource
  3. Middle Englishmeaning shiftsan appendage → projecting roofpentice‘projecting roof’source
  4. Englishmeaning shiftsprojecting roof → an upmarket apartment on a building’s highest floorpenthouse‘an upmarket apartment on a building’s highest floor’ · 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 Latin appendicium ‘an appendage’.

Roots

Building blocks are an automatic split · open in app