Discoveries

How to spell discoveries

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce discoveries

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does discoveries mean?

1. nounInstances of finding or learning something that was previously unknown.

Discoveries in a sentence

• The museum exhibit celebrated centuries of scientific discoveries.

• Her travel journal recorded small discoveries in every new city.

Where does discoveries come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back to the Old French descovrir, meaning literally 'to uncover' or 'to remove a covering', which itself came from the Late Latin discooperire, built from the prefix dis- (signalling reversal) and cooperire 'to cover over completely'. When English adopted 'discover' in the fourteenth century, it carried that very literal sense of taking the lid or wrapping off something hidden, and only gradually shifted toward the modern meaning of finding out something previously unknown. The noun 'discovery' followed, and its plural 'discoveries' simply adds the regular -es ending after the y turns to i. The spelling trap lives in that quiet middle: writers hesitate over the single 'c' and the unstressed 'o' and 'e' vowels, and over whether the plural is -ys or -ies. Knowing the word is really 'dis' plus 'cover' helps anchor the single c and the familiar everyday word buried inside it.

How the word is built

• dis- (reversal, un-)
• cover (from Old French covrir: to cover)
• -y (noun-forming suffix)
• -es (plural)