stone

UK/stəʊ̯n/US/stoʊ̯n/

nounA26 meanings Very common — you will meet it every day · #884 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: stones

A stone is a small hard piece of rock, the kind you pick up on a beach and turn over in your hand before skimming it. Stone is also the material itself, with no 'a' in front: a stone wall, a stone floor, a church built of grey stone.

From there the word travels a long way. Inside a peach, a plum or an olive, the stone is the hard seed at the centre. A precious stone is a gem, and a ring can have a green stone in it. In Britain a stone is a weight of fourteen pounds, and the plural stays stone, so a person weighs eleven stone, never eleven stones. Doctors use it for the hard lumps that form inside the body, as in kidney stones. Fixed phrases keep it busy: set in stone, a stone's throw away, leave no stone unturned.

Definitions of stone

1nounpebbleA small piece of rock.A2~23%
“He skimmed a flat stone across the water four times.”
synonyms: pebble, rock
2nounstoneThe hard material that rock is made of, used for building.A2~59%
“The cottage is built of local stone and slate.”
- Said"The walls are stone, so it's cold in here even in summer."
- WrittenThe old mill was built of grey stones that turned gold when the sun caught them.
- UsedSeal a stone floor once a year or the red wine will stain it.
- ContrastStone, not rock. Rock is where it lies in the ground; stone is what you build with once it is cut. rock →
- Not thisOne pebble is a stone; a church is made of stone. The material takes no plural.
Patternmade / built of stone · a stone + noun (wall, floor, bridge) · stone cold · a stone's throw
3nounseedThe hard seed at the centre of some fruits.B1~2%
“Take the stones out of the cherries before you cook them.”
- Said"Careful — you'll bite on a stone, these cherries still have them."
- WrittenHe spat the olive stone into his hand and looked for somewhere to put it.
- UsedHalve the plums and remove the stones.
- ContrastA stone, not a seed. An apple has small seeds; a peach has one big stone in the middle. seed →
- SimplyDo not eat the hard part of the fruit. That is the stone.
Patternthe stone of + fruit (a cherry, a plum, a peach) · take out / remove the stones
4noungemA jewel.B1~2%
“The ring had a small green stone in a plain setting.”
synonyms: gem
5noununitA British unit of weight equal to fourteen pounds.B2~2%
“He lost two stone over the winter.”
6nounlumpA hard lump that forms in the kidney or gall bladder.B2~12%
“She spent the night in hospital with kidney stones.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 8 sentences found in the wild and placed 8 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Remember it

stONE → the ONE hard bit in the middle of the fruit

Hard, cold and heavy: the walls of the old castle are stone, and so is the one hard bit in the middle of the fruit — the only part you cannot eat.

Phrases it lives in

a stone's throw — a very short distance away
set in stone — fixed and impossible to change
leave no stone unturned — to try every possible way of finding or doing something

Also practised as

nounThe hard seed at the centre of some fruits.

Where it comes from

Stone comes down unbroken from Old English stan, through Proto-Germanic *stainaz, from a Proto-Indo-European root *steyh2- meaning 'to stiffen'. A stone, by that account, is simply what has set hard. The relatives are easy to spot: German Stein, Dutch steen, Swedish sten.

Proto-Indo-European
*steyh₂-
Middle English
ston
English, today
stone

From Middle English ston. From Middle English ston, stone, stan, from Old English stān, from Proto-West Germanic stain, from Proto-Germanic stainaz (“stone”), from Proto-Indo-European steyh₂- (“to stiffen”). 2

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Nature & Weather, Numbers & Measurement

Practise this word

stone in the wild

The stone was carved during the Hellenistic period and is believed to have originally been displayed within a temple, possibly at Sais.
Rosetta Stone
When the British defeated the French, they took the stone to London under the terms of the Capitulation of Alexandria in 1801.
Rosetta Stone
The famous circle of large sarsen stones was placed between 2600 BC and 2400 BC.
Stonehenge
About half of all people who have had a kidney stone are likely to develop another within ten years.
Kidney stone disease
Then Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh laid the foundation stone for the institute on 19 October 2010.
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Hyderabad

1 / 3

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

Definitions of stone

1nounpebbleA small piece of rock.A2~23%

“He skimmed a flat stone across the water four times.”

synonyms: pebble, rock

2nounstoneThe hard material that rock is made of, used for building.A2~59%

“The cottage is built of local stone and slate.”

Said"The walls are stone, so it's cold in here even in summer."
WrittenThe old mill was built of grey stones that turned gold when the sun caught them.
UsedSeal a stone floor once a year or the red wine will stain it.
ContrastStone, not rock. Rock is where it lies in the ground; stone is what you build with once it is cut. rock →
Not thisOne pebble is a stone; a church is made of stone. The material takes no plural.

Patternmade / built of stone · a stone + noun (wall, floor, bridge) · stone cold · a stone's throw

3nounseedThe hard seed at the centre of some fruits.B1~2%

“Take the stones out of the cherries before you cook them.”

Said"Careful — you'll bite on a stone, these cherries still have them."
WrittenHe spat the olive stone into his hand and looked for somewhere to put it.
UsedHalve the plums and remove the stones.
ContrastA stone, not a seed. An apple has small seeds; a peach has one big stone in the middle. seed →
SimplyDo not eat the hard part of the fruit. That is the stone.

Patternthe stone of + fruit (a cherry, a plum, a peach) · take out / remove the stones

4noungemA jewel.B1~2%

“The ring had a small green stone in a plain setting.”

synonyms: gem

5noununitA British unit of weight equal to fourteen pounds.B2~2%

“He lost two stone over the winter.”

6nounlumpA hard lump that forms in the kidney or gall bladder.B2~12%

“She spent the night in hospital with kidney stones.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 8 sentences found in the wild and placed 8 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.