Library / English Dictionary

PITH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience

Example:

the nub of the story

Synonyms:

center; centre; core; essence; gist; heart; heart and soul; inwardness; kernel; marrow; meat; nitty-gritty; nub; pith; substance; sum

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("pith" is a kind of...):

cognitive content; content; mental object (the sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "pith"):

bare bones ((plural) the most basic facts or elements)

hypostasis ((metaphysics) essential nature or underlying reality)

haecceity; quiddity (the essence that makes something the kind of thing it is and makes it different from any other)

quintessence (the purest and most concentrated essence of something)

stuff (a critically important or characteristic component)

Derivation:

pithy (concise and full of meaning)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Soft spongelike central cylinder of the stems of most flowering plants

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("pith" is a kind of...):

plant tissue (the tissue of a plant)

Meronyms (substance of "pith"):

parenchyma (the primary tissue of higher plants composed of thin-walled cells that remain capable of cell division even when mature; constitutes the greater part of leaves, roots, the pulp of fruits, and the pith of stems)

Derivation:

pith (remove the pith from (a plant))

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Remove the pith from (a plant)

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "pith" is one way to...):

get rid of; remove (dispose of)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

pith (soft spongelike central cylinder of the stems of most flowering plants)

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