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say it: SI-sturn
cistern is a noun meaning "a sac or cavity containing fluid especially lymph or cerebrospinal fluid". It is pronounced /ˈsɪstɚn/ — SI-sturn. It carries 3 recorded senses.
a tank that holds the water used to flush a toilet
an artificial reservoir for storing liquids; especially an underground tank for storing rainwater
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for cistern come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.