different between plait vs ravel

English

Etymology

From Middle English pleit, from Anglo-Norman pleit (compare Old French ploit), from Latin plect?, which is akin to Old Norse flétta (Danish flette) and to Russian ???????? (spletat?). Doublet of plight (“plait, fold”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ple?t/, /plæt/
• Homophones: plate, plat
• Rhymes: -æt
• Rhymes: -e?t

Noun

plait (plural plaits)

1. A flat fold; a doubling, as of cloth; a pleat.

   • the plaits and foldings of the drapery

2. A braid, as of hair or straw; a plat.

Related terms

• pleat

Translations

Further reading

• Plait in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Verb

plait (third-person singular simple present plaits, present participle plaiting, simple past and past participle plaited)

1. (transitive) To fold; to double in narrow folds; to pleat

2. (transitive) To interweave the strands or locks of; to braid

Translations

Anagrams

• Patil, Pilat, lapti

French

Verb

plait

1. Post-1990 spelling of plaît (third-person singular present indicative of plaire)

Anagrams

• pilât, pliât

Middle English

Etymology

From Old French plait, plet.

Noun

plait (plural plaits)

1. Alternative form of ple

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Latin placitum (“decree”).

Noun

plait m (oblique plural plaiz or plaitz, nominative singular plaiz or plaitz, nominative plural plait)

1. agreement
2. argument; dispute
3. court (of law)
4. plea; ask; demand

Related terms

• plaidier

Descendants

• ? Middle English: plait
  • English: plea
  • Scots: plaid

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (plait)
• plai on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub

English

Etymology

From Dutch ravelen (“to tangle, fray out, unweave”), from Dutch rafel (“frayed thread”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??æv?l/
• Rhymes: -æv?l

Noun

ravel (plural ravels)

1. A snarl; a complication.
2. A ravelled thread.

Verb

ravel (third-person singular simple present ravels, present participle ravelling or (US) raveling, simple past and past participle ravelled or (US) raveled)

1. (transitive) To tangle; entangle; entwine confusedly, become snarled; thus to involve; perplex; confuse.
   • 1660, Edmund Waller, To the King, upon his Majesty's Happy Return

     What glory's due to him that could divide / Such ravelled interests?

   • 1653, Jeremy Taylor, Twenty-five Sermons preached at Golden Grove; being for the Winter Half-year

     The faith of very many men seems a duty so weak and indifferent, is so often untwisted by violence, or ravelled and entangled in weak discourses!
2. (transitive, figuratively) To undo the intricacies of; to disentangle or clarify.
3. (transitive) To pull apart (especially cloth or a seam); unravel.
4. (intransitive) To become entangled.
5. (intransitive) To become untwisted or unwoven.
6. (computing, programming) In the APL programming language, to reshape (a variable) into a vector.
   • 1975, Tse-yun Feng, Parallel processing: proceedings of the Sagamore Computer Conference

     LOAD.S loads a sequence of scalars from the ravelled form of a matrix into successive AM elements.

Usage notes

• The spellings ravelling and ravelled are more common in the UK than in the US.

Translations

References

• Century Dictionary, Vol. VI, Page 4976, ravel
• Century Dictionary Supplement, Vol. XII, Page 1114, ravel
• The New Century Dictionary 1952, Volume Two, page 1476, Ravel
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “ravel”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
• ravel at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• arvel, larve, laver, reval, velar

Westrobothnian

Noun

ravel n

1. Talk.

Related terms

• raväl