curtsy

Other forms of curtsy

plural

curtsies·

past tense or participle

curtsied

present participle

curtsying·

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.

Questions about curtsy

What does curtsy mean?

curtsy means "bend the knees in a gesture of respectful greeting". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in curtsy?

curtsy has 2 syllables: curt-sy. The stress falls on "curt". In IPA it is /ˈkɝtsi/.

What is another word for curtsy?

Close synonyms include curtsey, bob, curtsey. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is curtsy a common word?

curtsy is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.