rosary
noun
Simple meaning
Prayer beads, a string of beads used to keep track of repetitions in prayer, particularly of the Roman Catholic Marian prayer "Hail Mary".
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
rohzereeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɹoʊzɚi
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
Prayer beads, a string of beads used to keep track of repetitions in prayer, particularly of the Roman Catholic Marian prayer "Hail Mary" (Ave Maria).
A string of beads used in counting prayers (especially by Catholics)
A Roman Catholic devotion involving the repetition of a series of Marian prayers, usually 5, 15, or 20 decades of "Hail Marys", each decade beginning with "Our Father" and ending with "Glory Be to the Father", but sometimes including other Roman Catholic, Anglican, or Lutheran prayers.
by extension
A series or collection of thoughts, literary pieces, etc. intended for similar contemplation.
A rose garden.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Prayer beads, a string of beads used to keep track of repetitions in prayer, particularly of the Roman Catholic Marian prayer "Hail Mary" (Ave Maria).
Used this way, rosary is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a religious use: it carries the weight of tradition and ceremony.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Religion/spirituality
- Historical writing
Nearby words
- prayer beads , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: prayer beads
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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.