Umbrella

How to spell umbrella

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce umbrella

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does umbrella mean?

1. nounA folding canopy on a central pole, carried to keep off rain or sun.
2. nounA general thing that covers or includes many separate parts.

Umbrella in a sentence

• She left her umbrella on the train during the morning commute.

• The charity acts as an umbrella for several smaller local groups.

• The forecast warned of showers, so he packed a small umbrella.

• All these projects sit under one budget umbrella this year.

Where does umbrella come from?

Language of origin: Italian

The word comes from the Italian ombrella, a diminutive of ombra meaning 'shade' or 'shadow', which in turn descends from the Latin umbra with the same sense. The original device was therefore a 'little shade', a parasol designed to shield its owner from the sun rather than the rain. English adopted the word in the early 1600s, gradually restoring the Latin-looking 'umb-' spelling that reflects umbra. Over the following century the umbrella shifted in British use from a sunshade to a waterproof rain shield, the meaning most familiar today. The same Latin umbra survives in relatives such as 'umbrage', once a word for shade and now for offence taken, and the doubled 'll' is the faint trace of that Italian diminutive ending.

How the word is built

• umbr- (from Latin umbra: shade, shadow)
• -ella (diminutive suffix: little)