Bony

How to spell bony

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce bony

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does bony mean?

1. adjectiveHaving prominent bones, or being thin so that the bones show.

Bony in a sentence

• The stray cat looked thin and bony after weeks on the street.

• She rested her chin on her bony knuckles while she read.

Where does bony come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built on the noun 'bone', which comes from the Old English ban, meaning the hard tissue of the skeleton. That word has solid Germanic roots, with close relatives such as the Dutch been and the German Bein, the latter of which drifted to mean 'leg' rather than 'bone'. The adjective form was created in English by adding the suffix -y, which signals 'full of' or 'characterised by', producing the sense of being prominent in bone or thin enough to show the skeleton. A spelling point worth remembering is that the silent 'e' of 'bone' is dropped before the -y is attached, which is why it is written 'bony' rather than 'boney', even though the long vowel sound survives unchanged. The same drop-the-e rule governs related forms like 'stony' and 'shiny', so the pattern is consistent across the language.

How the word is built

• bon- (from Old English ban: bone, with silent e dropped)
• -y (adjective suffix: full of, having)