Stony Meaning
/ˈstəʊni/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjAs hard as stone.
adjContaining or made up of stones.
Sentence Examples
He had a stony face, etched by time.
Tom's joke was met with stony silence.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The farmer's field was too ____ for planting because it was filled with large rocks.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The path through the mountains was very ____, making it difficult to walk without wearing heavy boots.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English stony, stoni, stani, from Old English stāniġ, stǣniġ (“stony, rocky”), from Proto-Germanic *stainagaz (“stony”), equivalent to stone + -y. Cognate with Scots stany (“stony”), West Frisian stienich (“stony”), Dutch stenig (“stony, metalled”), German steinig (“stony, rocky, gravelly”), Swedish stenig (“stony, rocky, pebbly”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The track was stony with a grassy camber up the middle."
— 2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 443:
"When Victor Laszlo leads the demoralized French in the “Marseilles^([sic – meaning Marseillaise]),” and even Yvonne, the chippy who is sleeping with a Nazi officer, joins in, the stoniest intellectual collapses in tears."
— 2012 March 19, David Denby, “Everybody Comes to Rick’s: “Casablanca” on the Big Screen”, in The New Yorker:
"o’er the heaps of dead, / Whose stony eyes glared in the morning light, / I trod; […]"
— 1817 December, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam. […]”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 264:
"The Oscar-thrilled audience reacted to Mailer's attempt at humor in stony silence."
— 1977 April 9, “Mailer Mauls "Perverts"”, in Gay Community News, page 2:
"Perplexed, Wheeler continues to play for a moment or two, keeping to his own internal time. But after another moment it becomes clear that something is wrong, something which everybody can see but him. He steals a glance up from his instrument, and finds that Luján is staring at him. In fact, every musician in the orchestra is staring at him, all of them wearing the same expression of stony, barely-contained ang—
They've been replaced."
— 2019 April 10, qntm, “CASE HATE RED”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, page 137:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The farmer's field was too ____ for planting because it was filled with large rocks.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The path through the mountains was very ____, making it difficult to walk without wearing heavy boots.