birr

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 
“
Which reminds me of another attraction of Ethiopia: Its currency is called the birr.

View all »
Definitions (16)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. noun A whirring sound.
  2. noun Strong forward momentum; driving force.
  3. intransitive verb To make a whirring sound.
1 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (7)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (3)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • The lower court dismissed his case and ordered his release, but he remained in prison until the High Court ordered his release on February 11 following a 1,000-birr ($98) bail.
  • The daily meal budget was approximately 5 birr (50 cents) per prisoner.
  • In most cases authorities set bail between 500 and 10,000 birr ($494-975), which was too costly for most citizens.
  • The journalists were detained for 26 days and released on February 29 on a bail of 12,000 birr ($1,200).
  • He appeared in court and was released on 200 birr ($20) bail the same day.
More examples »
 

Tags

birr hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 70 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English bir, favorable wind, from Old Norse byrr; see bher-1 in Indo-European roots.
  2. Amharic bərr, from brr, to be white.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. Scots, also bir, ber, beir, bere, bur, burr, etc., from Middle English bir, byr, byrre, burre, bur, from Icelandic byrr (= Swedish Danish bör), a favoring wind, from bera (= Anglo-Saxon beran), bear: see bear.
  2. Scots, also bir, ber, etc., apparently imitative, like bur, burr, and birl, q. v.
  3. from birr, v.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/bər/
by American Heritage
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about once a year.

Recently looked up

Brimsdown · machine · Pinon · will · cram

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

ultimatum · pew · deadpool · sad panda · nom nom nom