Rib

How to spell rib

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce rib

What does rib mean?

1. nounOne of the curved bones that extend from the spine and form the protective cage around the chest.
2. nounA curved or raised supporting strip, as in a ship's hull, an umbrella, knitting, or a leaf.
3. verbTo tease someone in a good-natured way.

Rib in a sentence

• noun

  The scan showed a hairline crack in one rib.

• noun

  A broken rib left the umbrella sagging on one side.

• verb

  His colleagues like to rib him about his terrible parking.

• noun

  He bruised a rib when he slipped on the icy step.

• noun

  The boat builder fitted each oak rib against the hull.

• verb

  They would gently rib each other over the weekend football results.

Where does rib come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Rib comes straight from the Old English ribb, the word the Anglo-Saxons used for the curved bones that enclose the chest. It belongs to a wide family of Germanic relatives, including the Dutch rib and the German Rippe, all going back to a prehistoric Germanic root that meant roughly a covering or something that arches over, since the ribs vault over and shelter the lungs and heart. From the early anatomical sense English extended the word to anything with the same curved, supporting shape: the timber ribs of a ship's hull, the raised ribs in vaulting, knitting, and corduroy. The much later informal verb meaning 'to tease' grew up in the nineteenth century, possibly from the idea of poking someone in the ribs in fun. Because it is short and entirely phonetic, the spelling has stayed stable for over a thousand years.

How the word is built

• rib (from Old English ribb: the curved bone of the chest); a single, unanalysable root word with no prefix or suffix