rune
noun
Simple meaning
Any character from an ancient Germanic alphabet used in Scandinavia from the 3rd century to the Middle Ages.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
roonIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɹun
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
Any character from an ancient Germanic alphabet used in Scandinavia from the 3rd century to the Middle Ages
“Each rune had its own magical significance.”
A letter, or character, used in the written language of various ancient Germanic peoples, especially the Scandinavians and the Anglo-Saxons.
A letter or mark used as a mystical or magic symbol.
Any visually similar script, such as Hungarian runes (the Old Hungarian script) or Turkic runes (the Old Turkic script).
A verse or song, especially one with mystical or mysterious overtones; a spell or an incantation.
A Finnic or Scandinavian epic poem, or a division of one, especially a division of the Kalevala.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Any character from an ancient Germanic alphabet used in Scandinavia from the 3rd century to the Middle Ages
Used this way, rune is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in historical writing contexts.
“Each rune had its own magical significance.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Historical writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use rune
- “Each rune had its own magical significance.”noun
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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.