rope
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rope¹
- /ɹəʊp/ UK
- /ɹoʊp/ US
- /ɹəʉp/ Australia
- /ɹɐʉp/ New Zealand
- /ɾop/ Scotland
- /ɾoːp/ Wales
Rhymes with -əʊp
Where it comes from
From Middle English rop, rope, from Old English rāp (“rope, cord, cable”), from Proto-West Germanic *raip, from Proto-Germanic *raipaz, *raipą (“rope, cord, band, ringlet”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁roypnós (“strap, band, rope”), from *h₁reyp- (“to peel off, tear; border, edge, strip”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots rape, raip (“rope”), Saterland Frisian Roop (“rope”), West Frisian reap (“rope, cord”), Dutch roop, reep (“rope, cord, ring, strip, bar”), German Low German Reep (“rope”), German Reif (“ring, hoop”), Norwegian Bokmål and Swedish rep (“rope”), Faroese and Norwegian Nynorsk reip (“rope”), Danish reb (“rope”), Icelandic reipi (“rope”), Albanian rrip (“belt, rope”).
noun ropes · roap · roape
- Thick strings, yarn, monofilaments, metal wires, or strands of other cordage that are twisted together to form a stronger line. Nylon rope is usually stronger than similar rope made of plant fibers.
- An individual length of such material. The swinging bridge is constructed of 40 logs and 30 ropes.
- A cohesive strand of something. The duchess wore a rope of pearls to the soirée.
- A continuous stream. The principle of any such device should be to pull on the vessel by a rope of water passing in at the bow and out at the stern.
- A hard line drive. He hit a rope past third and into the corner.
- A long thin segment of soft clay, either extruded or formed by hand.
-
A data structure resembling a string, using a concatenation tree in which each leaf represents a character.
Similar: cord
- A kind of chaff (material dropped to interfere with radar) consisting of foil strips with paper chutes attached.
-
A unit of distance equivalent to the distance covered in six months by a god flying at ten million miles per second.
The central strip of the loka, the Middle World, represents its smallest area, being only one rope wide and one hundred thousand leagues high, […]
Similar: rajju, infinitude
- A necklace of at least one meter in length.
- Cordage of at least one inch in diameter, or a length of such cordage.
- A unit of length equal to twenty feet.
- Rohypnol.
- Semen being ejaculated. shooting ropes
- Death by hanging. The murderer was sentenced to the rope.
- An apparatus, currently with limited use by the senior contestants and not used in world-wide tournaments.
- An apparatus program with a rope.
rope²
- /ɹəʊp/ UK
- /ɹoʊp/ US
- /ɹəʉp/ Australia
- /ɹɐʉp/ New Zealand
- /ɾop/ Scotland
- /ɾoːp/ Wales
Rhymes with -əʊp
Where it comes from
From Middle English ropen, rope (“to form ropes”), from rop (“rope”); see above.
verb ropes · roping · roped
- To tie (something) with rope. The robber roped the victims.
-
To throw a rope (or something similar, e.g. a lasso, cable, wire, etc.) around (something).
The cowboy roped the calf.
Similar: lasso
- To climb by means of a rope or ropes. We roped down to the platform selected for the bivouac; set up our bags and brewed a reasonable meal.
- To be formed into rope; to draw out or extend into a filament or thread. Let us not hang like roping icicles / Upon our houses' thatch.
- To pull or restrain (the horse one is riding) to prevent it from winning a race. Others, a shade more advanced, have been known to bribe a jockey to "hold," "rope" a horse, or a stableman to poison or stupefy him.
-
To commit suicide, particularly by hanging.
My life is a mess; I might as well rope.
Similar: ropemaxx
rope³
- /ɹəʊp/ UK
- /ɹoʊp/ US
- /ɹəʉp/ Australia
- /ɹɐʉp/ New Zealand
- /ɾop/ Scotland
- /ɾoːp/ Wales
Rhymes with -əʊp
Where it comes from
From Middle English rop (“gut, intestine”), from Old English rop, ropp; compare Middle Dutch rop, roppe (“fish guts”).
The modern pronunciation results from phonological assimilation to Etymology 1.
noun ropes · rop · rap
- The small intestines. the ropes of birds
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: leash, cord, loop, string, knot, thread, strap, ribbon, lariat, lasso, cordon, cable, wire, noose, ball, arrow
Translations
Every language
noun thick, strong string
| Español | soga, maroma, toa, hico, jarcia, lía |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 밧줄 batjul, 로프 ropeu |
| 日本語 | ロープ rōpu, 綱 tsuna, 縄 nawa |
| 中文 | 繩子 /绳子 shéngzi, 繩索 /绳索 shéngsuǒ |
| हिन्दी | डोरी ḍorī, रस्सी rassī |
| Kiswahili | kamba |
| Português | corda |
| Français | corde |
| Deutsch | Seil, Tau, Schnur |
| Italiano | corda, cavo, fune, rudente, resta |
| Ελληνικά | σχοινί schoiní |
| Română | frânghie, coardă, funie |
| Русский | верёвка verjóvka, трос tros, кана́т kanát, бечёвка bečóvka |
| Tiếng Việt | dây |
| العربية | حَبْل ḥabl |
| עברית | חֶבֶל khével |
Talk about this word "rope." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/rope. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. rope. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/rope "rope." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/rope.Cite this
@misc{rope_2026,
title = {rope},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/rope},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
