half-moon

Questions about half-moon

What does half-moon mean?

half-moon means "the crescent-shaped area at the base of the human fingernail". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in half-moon?

half-moon has 2 syllables and divides as half--moon under the regular spelling rules. It is not in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, so that comes from how the word is written rather than from a recorded pronunciation, and no stress or phonetic transcription is claimed for it.

What is another word for half-moon?

Close synonyms include lunula, lunule. 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 half-moon a common word?

half-moon 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.