aorist
/ˈeɪ.ə.ɹɪst/noun, adjective
aorist is a noun meaning “A verb paradigm found in certain languages, usually an unmarked form or one that expresses the perfective or aorist aspect” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled A-O-R-I-S-T and has 3 syllables, and it appears about once in every 11 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of aorist is aorists.
What does aorist mean?
noun
- 1
A verb paradigm found in certain languages, usually an unmarked form or one that expresses the perfective or aorist aspect.
- 2
A particular verb in the aorist.
adjective
- 1
Of or pertaining to a verb in the aorist aspect.
the aorist stem of a verb
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce aorist?
- UK /ˈeɪ.ə.ɹɪst/
- UK /ˈɛə.ɹɪst/
- US /ˈeɪ.ə.ɹɪst/
Aorist has 3 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-aorist.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of aorist
- aorists plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is aorist?
Aorist appears about once in every 11 million words in written English, the 100,430th 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).
Aorist in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
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 aorist come from?
From Ancient Greek ἀόριστος (aóristos, “unbounded”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).