Mantle Meaning
/ˈmæn.təl/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA piece of clothing somewhat like an open robe or cloak, especially that worn by Orthodox bishops.
nounA figurative garment representing authority or status, capable of affording protection.
Sentence Examples
Scientists believe that Ceres has a rocky core and an icy mantle.
Tick-tock, tick-tock! They kept winding the clock on the mantle.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The king wore a royal ____ made of silk and gold at the ceremony.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The earth's ____ is the layer of silicate rock between the outer crust and the extremely hot inner core.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English mantel, from Old English mæntel, mentel (“sleeveless cloak”), from Proto-West Germanic *mantel; later reinforced by Anglo-Norman mantel, both from Latin mantellum (“covering, cloak”) (French manteau), diminutive of mantum (Spanish manto), probably from Gaulish *mantos, *mantalos (“trodden road”), from Proto-Celtic *mantos, *mantlos, from Proto-Indo-European *menH- (“tread, press together; crumble”). Compare Icelandic möttull. Doublet of manteau.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"“The great millennial novelist”—the mantle has been thrust, by Boomers and Gen Xers alike, upon the Irish writer Sally Rooney, whose two carefully observed and gentle comedies of manners both appeared before her twenty-eighth birthday. With this mantle have come prizes and money. Nearly every review has mentioned at least the prizes."
— 2019 April 18, Madeleine Schwartz, “How Should a Millennial Be?”, in The New York Review, →ISSN:
"But look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill."
— c. 1599-1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, act 1, scene 1; republished as Hamlet, New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1992, →ISBN, page 6:
"the green mantle of the standing pool"
— c. 1605-1606, William Shakespeare, King Lear:
"Know, oh prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars"
— 1932 December, Robert E. Howard, “The Phoenix on the Sword”, in Weird Tales:
"Molluscan bodies are broadly divided into two parts: a muscular foot and a shell-secreting mantle."
— 2017, Danna Staaf, Squid Empire, ForeEdge, →ISBN, page 8:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The king wore a royal ____ made of silk and gold at the ceremony.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The earth's ____ is the layer of silicate rock between the outer crust and the extremely hot inner core.