Definition
nounA hard earthen substance that can form rocks; especially, such substance when regarded as a building material.
nounA piece of such material: a block of stone, rock or a pebble.
Sentence Examples
"A rolling stone gathers no moss" is a proverb.
That way I kill two birds with one stone.
Most of the houses are built of stone.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *steh₂-
Proto-Indo-European *steyh₂-
Proto-Indo-European *stoyh₂nos
Proto-Germanic *stainaz
Proto-West Germanic *stain
Old English stān
Middle English ston
English stone
From Middle English ston, stone, stan, from Old English stān, from Proto-West Germanic *stain, from Proto-Germanic *stainaz (“stone”), from Proto-Indo-European *steyh₂- (“to stiffen”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots stane (“stone”), Yola sthoan (“stone”), North Frisian stean, stian, stiin, stiinj (“stone”), Saterland Frisian Steen (“stone”), West Frisian stien (“stone”), Alemannic German Steei (“rock, stone”), Bavarian Staa (“rock, stone”), Central Franconian Steen, Stään (“stone”), Dutch steen (“stone”), German Stein (“rock, stone”), German Low German Steen, Stein (“stone”), Luxembourgish Steen (“stone”), Vilamovian śtan (“stone”), Yiddish שטיין (shteyn, “stone”), Danish and Swedish sten (“stone”), Elfdalian stien (“stone”), Faroese steinur (“stone”), Gutnish stain (“rock, stone”), Icelandic steinn (“rock, stone”), Norwegian Bokmål stein, sten (“stone”), Norwegian Nynorsk steidn, stein (“stone”), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (stains, “stone”). Compare also Ancient Greek στία (stía, “pebble”), στέαρ (stéar, “tallow”), Lithuanian sténgti (“to be able, make an effort; to oppose”), Russian стена́ (stená, “wall”), Albanian shtëng (“hardened or pressed matter”), Sanskrit स्तिया (stiyā, “still or stagnant water”). Doublet of stain, stean, and stein.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Toad, that vnder cold ſtone, / Dayes and Nights ha’s thirty one: / Sweltred Venom ſleeping got, / Boyle thou firſt i’th’ charmed pot."
— c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 143, column 2:
"The first day of the weeke, commeth Mary Magdalene earely when it was yet darke, vnto the Sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the Sepulchre."
— 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 20:1:
"It is about 2,500 yards in circuit, is built of red stone, and, according to Von Orlich, is now " a bastioned quinquangle ; the ancient walls with semicircular bastions face the two streams ; the land side is quite regular, and consists of two bastions, and a half-bastion with three ravelins," and stands higher than any ground in face of it."
— 1858, Edward Thornton, A Gazetteer of the Territories Under the Government of the East India Company and of the Native States on the Continent of India, W. H. Allen & Co., page 22:
"The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll."
— 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:
"A railway station which formerly stood a few miles from Sydney has recently been demolished, stone by stone, and has been re-erected as a church in the Australian Capital Territory of Canberra, about 200 miles away."
— 1960 March 26, “Notes and News: Cemetery Station Re-Erected as a Church”, in Railway Magazine, page 215: