Wordsmith.org: the magic of words


A.Word.A.Day

About | Media | Search | Contact  


Home

Today's Word

Subscribe

Archives



May 16, 2023
This week’s theme
Words from ball games

This week’s words
Hail Mary
kingpin
wheelhouse
snooker
jump ball

kingpin
Skittle Players Outside an Inn (detail), 1660
Art: Jan Steen

Bookmark and Share Facebook Twitter Digg MySpace Bookmark and Share
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

kingpin

PRONUNCIATION:
(KING-pin)

MEANING:
noun:
1. The most important person in an organization, especially one who is the head of a crime organization.
2. The tallest, foremost, or the central pin in an arrangement of bowling pins.
3. A main bolt, for example, a large vertical bolt in an axle of a vehicle.

ETYMOLOGY:
From skittles, a lawn game involving pins that are toppled by a ball, the ancestor of modern bowling. Earliest documented use: 1773.

USAGE:
“Cartels have a way of reorganising, and new kingpins are already moving into the vacant space in the market.”
Laundering in Texas; The Economist (London, UK); Oct 26, 1996.

See more usage examples of kingpin in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
As a general truth, communities prosper and flourish, or droop and decline, in just the degree that they practise or neglect to practise the primary duties of justice and humanity. -William Henry Seward, Secretary of State, Governor, and Senator (16 May 1801-1872)

We need your help

Help us continue to spread the magic of words to readers everywhere

Donate

Subscriber Services
Awards | Stats | Links | Privacy Policy
Contribute | Advertise

© 1994-2024 Wordsmith