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rib

/ɹɪb/noun, verb

rib is a noun meaning “Any of a series of long curved bones occurring in 12 pairs in humans and other animals and extending from the spine to or toward the sternum” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-I-B and has one syllable, and it appears 3.9 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of rib is ribs.

What does rib mean?

noun

  1. 1

    Any of a series of long curved bones occurring in 12 pairs in humans and other animals and extending from the spine to or toward the sternum.

  2. 2

    A part or piece, similar to a rib, and serving to shape or support something.

    a broken rib on the umbrella

  3. 3

    A cut of meat enclosing one or more rib bones.

  4. 4

    Any of several curved members attached to a ship's keel and extending upward and outward to form the framework of the hull.

  5. 5

    Any of several transverse pieces that provide an aircraft wing with shape and strength.

  6. 6

    A long, narrow, usually arched member projecting from the surface of a structure, especially such a member separating the webs of a vault

  7. 7

    A strip of metal running along the top of the barrel that serves as a sighting plane.

  8. 8

    A raised ridge in knitted material or in cloth.

  9. 9

    Hound's-tongue (Cynoglossum officinale).

  10. 10

    Costmary (Tanacetum balsamita).

  11. 11

    Watercress (Nasturtium officinale).

verb

  1. 1

    To shape, support, or provide something with a rib or ribs.

  2. 2

    To tease or make fun of someone in a good-natured way.

    He always gets ribbed for his outrageous shirts.

  3. 3

    To enclose, as if with ribs, and protect; to shut in.

  4. 4

    To leave strips of undisturbed ground between the furrows in ploughing (land).

noun

as RIB
  1. 1

    Acronym of rigid inflatable boat (“a lightweight inflatable boat with a rigid hull”).

  2. 2

    routing information base

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce rib?

  • /ɹɪb/

Rib has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-rib.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of rib

  • ribs plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • ribbing participle, present
  • ribbed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is rib?

Rib appears 3.9 times per million words in written English, the 13,127th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Rib in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcôte (curved bone), côtelette (cut of meat), nervure (shaping and supporting member in an aircraft…), épouse, femme (archaic, literary, humorous: wife woman), charrier (to tease)
GermanRippe (curved bone), Rippchen (cut of meat), Strebe (part similar to rib), Spant (nautical: part of a ship’s framework)
Portuguesecostela (curved bone), caverna (nautical: part of a ship’s framework)
Spanishcostilla (curved bone), costillar (cut of meat), cuaderna (nautical: part of a ship’s framework)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does rib come from?

From Middle English rib, ribbe, from Old English ribb (“rib”), from Proto-West Germanic *ribi, from Proto-Germanic *ribją (“rib, reef”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rebʰ- (“arch, ceiling, cover”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).