quarry
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A surface excavation for extracting stone or slate.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kwawreeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkwɔɹi
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
mining
A surface excavation for extracting stone or slate
“A British term for `quarry' is `stone pit'”
uncountable
An animal, often a bird or mammal, which is hunted.
mining
A site for mining stone, such as limestone, or slate.
Animal hunted or caught for food
countable
An object of search or pursuit.
A diamond-shaped tile or pane, often of glass or stone.
verb
figurativelytransitive
To extract or slowly obtain by long, tedious searching.
To secure prey; to prey, as a vulture or harpy.
Extract (something such as stones) from or as if from a quarry
transitive
To obtain (or mine) stone by extraction from a quarry.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An animal, often a bird or mammal, which is hunted.
Used this way, quarry is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The extraction of building stone or slate from an open surface quarry.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.