Dust

How to spell dust

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce dust

What does dust mean?

1. nounFine, dry particles of matter that settle on surfaces or float in the air.
2. verbTo remove fine particles from a surface by wiping or brushing.
3. verbTo sprinkle a surface lightly with a fine powder.

Dust in a sentence

• noun

  A thick layer of dust had settled on the bookshelf.

• verb

  She likes to dust the shelves every weekend.

• verb

  The baker will dust the cake with icing sugar.

• noun

  Sunlight made the floating dust visible across the room.

• verb

  Please dust the furniture before the guests arrive.

• verb

  Lightly dust the work surface with flour before kneading.

Where does dust come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Dust descends from the Old English word 'dust', which referred to fine, dry particles of earth or other matter, the same powdery stuff that settles on surfaces today. It belongs to a wider Germanic family, with relatives such as the Dutch 'duist' and German 'Dunst', meaning vapour or fine mist, suggesting an original sense of something that floats or is blown about in the air. The deeper root is thought to relate to ideas of smoke, breath, or rising particles, which fits the way dust drifts and scatters. Because the word is short, native, and has stayed phonetically regular for over a thousand years, its spelling has barely changed and offers no real trap. It also gained figurative weight early on, appearing in solemn phrases about mortality, since the body was said to return to dust.

How the word is built

• dust (single Old English root, no affixes)