Try

How to spell try

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce try

What does try mean?

1. verbTo make an attempt or effort to do something.
2. verbTo examine and decide a case in a court of law.
3. nounAn attempt, or in rugby a score made by grounding the ball over the opponents' line.

Try in a sentence

• verb

  She decided to try a new route to work this morning.

• verb

  The court will try the case in the spring session.

• noun

  Give the new software one more try before you cancel the subscription.

• verb

  You should try the recipe before serving it to guests.

• verb

  A judge alone will try the matter without a jury.

• noun

  The winger scored a try in the final minute of the match.

Where does try come from?

Language of origin: French

The word comes from the Old French verb trier, meaning 'to pick out, sort, or sift', which English adopted in the 1200s. The deeper origin is uncertain, though it may trace to a Late Latin word connected to separating grain from chaff, the idea of testing something to see what is good. From that sense of sifting and examining came the modern meaning of making an attempt or putting something to the test, and in law it gave us the sense of examining a case in court. The word is short and phonetically regular, so the only spelling decision is remembering that the long 'i' sound is written with a 'y' at the end rather than 'ie' or 'igh'. That final 'y' becomes 'i' in related forms like 'tried' and 'trial', which is a useful reminder of the family connection.

How the word is built

• try (single root, from Old French trier 'to pick out, sift')