rook

C2+ Topic:Animals

US /rʊk/ UK /rʊk/ See IPA manual

Minimal pairs

Sounds like look /l/ vs /r/

Meanings

1

noun
a black crow-like bird; a chess castle; to cheat or swindle

A rook cawed from the bare branches of the elm.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a black crow-like bird; a... crow cheat swindle fleece defraud con castle

Word family

Derived forms rookeryrooked

Related forms rookie

Etymology

From Old English hrōc ('rook, the bird'), of imitative origin (echoing its harsh cry), from Proto-Germanic *hrōkaz. The 'castle' chess sense is separate, from Old French roc, from Persian rukh.

hrōc Old English *hrōkaz Proto-Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Animals

External links

# rook

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /rʊk/
**IPA (UK):** /rʊk/

## Meanings
1. a black crow-like bird; a chess castle; to cheat or swindle

## Examples
- A rook cawed from the bare branches of the elm.

## Synonyms
- crow
- cheat
- swindle
- fleece
- defraud
- con
- castle

## Derived Forms
- rookery
- rooked

## Related Forms
- rookie

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: hrōc
- Root: *hrōkaz

## Etymology
From Old English hrōc ('rook, the bird'), of imitative origin (echoing its harsh cry), from Proto-Germanic *hrōkaz. The 'castle' chess sense is separate, from Old French roc, from Persian rukh.

## AI Etymology
Rook comes from Old English hrōc ('rook, the bird'), of imitative origin (echoing its harsh cry), from Proto-Germanic *hrōkaz. The 'castle' chess sense is separate, from Old French roc, from Persian rukh. The historical chain includes Old English hrōc and Proto-Germanic *hrōkaz. Older glosses in the chain include "rook, the bird" and "castle", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, rook is best read as borrowing and imitative formation, yielding an English noun and verb shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a noun and verb, with the sense "a black crow-like bird; a chess castle; to cheat or swindle". English derivatives include rookery and rooked; related forms include rookie. The result is an English noun and verb whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.

## Topics
- Animals

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