Definition of BEZOAR

bezoar

Plural: bezoars

Noun

  • A hard, indigestible mass found in the stomachs of some animals.
  • A mass, usually of hair or undigested vegetable matter, found in a human or animal's intestines, similar to a hairball.
  • An enterolith.

Examples

  • The cluster of consonants on my rack felt like a linguistic bezoar.

Origin / Etymology

From Spanish bezoar and/or French bézoard, based on Arabic بَازَهْر (bāzahr), from Middle Persian pʾtzhl (pādzahr, “bezoar, antidote”), from a compound of words meaning “to protect” and “poison” (literally “killing thing”), thus a bezoar was “that which protects against poison”. In ancient times, bezoars from animals were ground up and ingested as remedies for various maladies and as antidotes to poisons.

Synonyms

bezoar stone

Scrabble Score: 17

bezoar: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
bezoar: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
bezoar: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 18

bezoar: valid Words With Friends Word