herald

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (1)  · 
“
At the sight of the arms of the Ambraciots from the city, the herald was astonished at their number, knowing nothing of the disaster and fancying that they were those of their own party.

View all »
Definitions (22)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. noun A person who carries or proclaims important news; a messenger.
  2. noun One that gives a sign or indication of something to come; a harbinger: The crocus is a herald of spring.
  3. noun An official whose specialty is heraldry.
3 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (9)

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

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (5)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples

  • She knew that the herald was the living memory of the times, the history teller of important events. —  Garwood, Julie - The Prize
  • At the sight of the arms of the Ambraciots from the city, the herald was astonished at their number, knowing nothing of the disaster and fancying that they were those of their own party. —  The History of the Peloponnesian War
  • Perhaps his herald was a simple longing to be at rest, joy at his approach blotting out all bitterness and regret. —  More Pages from a Journal
  • Nan insisted on playing cut off her toe with a carving-knife, and performed that operation so well that the herald was alarmed, and begged her to be "welly keerful." —  Little Men
  • The dread alarum should make the earth quake to its centre, for the herald is about to address mankind with a summons to which even the purest mortal may be sensible of some faint responding echo in his breast. —  Mosses from an Old Manse and other stories
 

Tags

herald hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

Herald has been looked up 138 times, favorited 0 times, listed 16 times, and commented on once.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Anglo-Norman, of Germanic origin; see koro- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English also herault, heraut, harrot, from Middle English herald, herauld, heraud, harawd, herowd, herod, harrold, etc., = Dutch heraut = late Middle High German heralt, herolt, erhalt, German herold (later Swedish härold = Danish herold), from Old French heralt, heraut, French héraut = Spanish haraldo, heraldo, also faraute = Portuguese arauto, also faraute = Italian araldo, from Middle Latin haraldus, heraldus, a herald; of Old High German origin. The word appears also as a proper name, Icelandic Haraldr, late Anglo-Saxon Harald, Harold, English Harold (ult. of German origin: the reg. Anglo-Saxon form would have been *Hereweald; it occurs reversed in Waldhere) = Old Saxon Hariolt (Diez, etc.), in Middle Latin Chariovaldus, answering to an Old High German *Hariwalt (or *Hariwalto), *Heriwalt (the alleged Old High German Heriold, Hariold, Arioald, Ariovald, are later reflections); from Old High German hari, heri (= Anglo-Saxon here, Icelandic herr, etc.), army (see harry), + -walt (= Anglo-Saxon -weald), in comp., strength (Old High German -walto = Anglo-Saxon -wealda, ruler), from waltan (= Anglo-Saxon wealdan, etc.), rule, have power: see wield. The same first element occurs in harbor, harborough, harbinger, heriot, etc.: see harbor, etc. The particular sense given to herald may have been influenced by Old High German foraharo, a herald, from forharēn, proclaim, from fora, fore, + harēn, cry out.
  2. from Old French herauder, heraulder, herald; from the noun.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/ˈhɛrəld/
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 twice a month.

Recent Lookups

ramus · kitbag · handwrite · funnel-like · fluffers

Recent Favorites

emulous · abdicated · pique · mellifluous · zeitgeist

Recent Pronunciations

milosrdenstvi · lichen-covered · futon · sagacity · monoragngocious