stone
noun · adjective · adverb · verb
Simple meaning
Building material made up of a piece of rock hewn in a definite shape for a special purpose.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
stohnIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈstoʊn
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
Building material consisting of a piece of rock hewn in a definite shape for a special purpose
“He wanted a special stone to mark the site.”
uncountablegeology
A hard earthen substance that can form rocks; especially, such substance when regarded as a building material.
board games
A playing piece made of any hard material, used in various board games such as backgammon and go.
countablegeology
A piece of such material: a rock or a pebble.
British
An avoirdupois unit used to measure the weight of a human body; equal to 14 pounds
“A heavy chap who must have weighed more than twenty stone.”
A dull light grey or beige, like that of some stones.
adjective
Of a dull light grey or beige, like that of some stones.
Constructed of stone.
Having the appearance of stone.
adverb
As a stone (used with following adjective).
verb
intransitive
To form a stone during growth, with reference to fruit etc.
transitiveslang
Especially of cannabis or narcotics: To intoxicate. (Usually in passive)
intransitivesingaporeslang
To do nothing, to stare blankly into space and not pay attention when relaxing or when bored.
transitive
To pelt with stones; especially, to kill by pelting with stones.
transitive
To wall or wall up with stones.
transitive
To remove a stone from (fruit etc.).
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Building material consisting of a piece of rock hewn in a definite shape for a special purpose
Used this way, stone is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“He wanted a special stone to mark the site.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Usage note
It most often appears in the pattern “stone to …”, which is worth copying when you use it.
Nearby words
- pit , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Natural pattern: stone to …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
How It’s Used
The word’s distinct uses, one example each.
Building / hardnoun
“He wanted a special stone to mark the site.”
Avoirdupoisnoun
“A heavy chap who must have weighed more than twenty stone.”
More ways to use stone
- “He wanted a special stone to mark the site.”noun
- “A heavy chap who must have weighed more than twenty stone.”noun
- “You should remove the stones from prunes before cooking.”noun
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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.
An attacker who pelts the victim with stones (especially with intent to kill).
The act of pelting with stones.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Eurasian marten having a brown coat with pale breast and throat.
Highly succulent stemless clump-forming plants with grey-green leaves similar in texture to lumps of granite.
A slender roadside herb of western Europe and Mediterranean areas that has foliage resembling parsley and has white flowers with aromatic seeds.
Medium-sized two-needled pine of southern Europe having a spreading crown.
A surface excavation for extracting stone or slate.
Any plant of the genus Lithops native to Africa having solitary yellow or white flowers and thick leaves that resemble stones.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: building material consisting of a piece of rock hewn in a definite shape for a special purpose
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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.