Words · Common
onion
/ˈʌnjən/ · 5 letters · 3 distinct letters
- noun
the bulb of an onion plant
- noun
bulbous plant having hollow leaves cultivated worldwide for its rounded edible bulb
- noun
an aromatic flavorful vegetable
Word history
From Middle English onyoun, oynoun, from Old French oignon, from Latin ūniōnem, accusative of ūniō (“onion”), which had also been borrowed into Old English as yne, ynnelēac (“onion”) (> Middle English hynne leac, henne leac). Displaced the inherited term ramsons. (soy): Stems from a 4chan word filter which changes the word soy to onions. The word filter was implemented in relation to the "alpha onion eater" meme, which is depicted as the direct opposite of the soy boy.
From Wiktionary, under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0
Why this word counts
- Where it comes from
- Listed in the English Speller Database at size 35: the core list of everyday words.
- How common it is
- Used about 8 times in every million words.
- In the spelling bee
- Daily answer A standard word with a definition we can show, so it can be a daily answer.