thorny

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. adjective bristling with perplexities
  2. adjective having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines or thorns or setae etc.

Etymology

From Middle English thorny, þorny, þorni, from Old English þorniġ, from Proto-West Germanic *þornag. By surface analysis, thorn + -y.

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