pebble

B2 Topic:Materials & Substances

US /ˈpɛb.əl/ See IPA manual

Freq #18332

Meanings

1

noun
A small, smooth, round stone, especially one shaped by water.

The children threw pebbles into the calm lake.

Thesaurus

Word family

Forms pebbledpebblespebblingpebbly

Derived forms pebble-dashpebblelesspebblelikepebblerpebblesnailpebblestonepebblewarepebbly

Appears in

Proverbs (1)

See all

Men stumble over pebbles, never over mountains

Etymology

From Middle English pibel (also in pibleston), from Old English papolstān (“pebble-stone”), from Old English *papol, *pyppel, *pæbbel of unknown origin + Old English stān. Compare Albanian popël.

pibel Middle English papol-stān Old English *papol Old English stān Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Materials & Substances

External links

# pebble

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B2
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈpɛb.əl/
**Frequency rank:** 18332

## Meanings
1. A small, smooth, round stone, especially one shaped by water.

## Examples
- The children threw pebbles into the calm lake.

## Derived Forms
- pebble-dash
- pebbleless
- pebblelike
- pebbler
- pebblesnail
- pebblestone
- pebbleware
- pebbly

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: pibel
- Root: papol-stān
- Root: *papol
- Root: stān

## Etymology
From Middle English pibel (also in pibleston), from Old English papolstān (“pebble-stone”), from Old English *papol, *pyppel, *pæbbel of unknown origin + Old English stān. Compare Albanian popël.

## AI Etymology
Pebble comes from Middle English pibel (also in pibleston), from Old English papolstān (“pebble-stone”), from Old English *papol, *pyppel, *pæbbel of unknown origin + Old English stān. Compare Albanian popël. Modern senses include a small, smooth, round stone, especially one shaped by water. The wider word family includes derivatives such as pebble-dash, pebbleless, pebblelike, pebbler, pebblesnail, and pebblestone.

## Topics
- Materials & Substances

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