Dryer

How to spell dryer

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce dryer

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dryer mean?

1. nounA machine or device that removes moisture, especially one for drying laundry or hair.
2. nounA substance added to speed up drying, such as one mixed into paint or varnish.

Dryer in a sentence

• The tumble dryer shrank her favourite jumper.

• The decorator stirred a chemical dryer into the oil paint.

• He pulled the warm towels straight from the dryer.

• A small amount of dryer helps the varnish cure overnight.

Where does dryer come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built on the native English adjective 'dry', which descends from the Old English drȳge, meaning free of moisture or not wet, a word shared with related Germanic forms such as Dutch droog and German trocken. To it English added the agent and instrument suffix '-er', the same ending that turns 'wash' into 'washer' and 'toast' into 'toaster', producing a noun for a thing that dries. The spelling 'dryer' for the machine emerged as washing appliances became household items, and writers increasingly reserved it for the device while keeping 'drier' for the comparative form of the adjective, meaning more dry. That split is not absolute and the two were long interchangeable, but the modern convention treats the y-spelling as the appliance. The trap is precisely that 'dry' loses its y to an i in many of its other forms (dried, dries, drier), so the appliance 'dryer' looks like the odd one out.

How the word is built

• dry (from Old English drȳge, free of moisture)
• -er (instrument/agent suffix: a thing that does the action)