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Added 9 October 2026

ruth

/ɹuːθ/ noun

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about ruth at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

United States professional baseball player famous for hitting home runs (1895-1948).
The great-grandmother of king David whose story is told in the Book of Ruth in the Old Testament.
A feeling of sympathy and sorrow for the misfortunes of others.
the blind are too often objects of pity

Origin

From Middle English ruthe, reuthe, reuþe, reowthe, rewthe (“compassion, pity, sympathy; mercy; grief, sorrow; cause or event of pity or sorrow; lamentation; calamity, trouble; distress; regret, remorse; cruelty, ill treatment”), from reu, reuen (“to feel compassion or pity; to regret, rue; etc.”) + -th, -the (suffix denoting a condition, quality, state of being, etc.), possibly influenced by an early Scandinavian language (compare Old Norse hrygð, hryggð (“affliction, grief, sorrow, ruth”), from the Proto-Germanic word indicated below).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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