deathwatch

Other forms of deathwatch

plural

deathwatches·

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 deathwatch

What does deathwatch mean?

deathwatch means "minute wingless psocopterous insects injurious to books and papers". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in deathwatch?

deathwatch has 2 syllables: death-watch. The stress falls on "death". In IPA it is /ˈdɛˌθwɑtʃ/.

What is another word for deathwatch?

Close synonyms include booklouse, book louse, Liposcelis divinatorius, deathwatch beetle, Xestobium rufovillosum. 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 deathwatch a common word?

deathwatch is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.