mettle — courage and fortitude; a person's ability to cope well with difficulties
Part of speech: NOUN
Definition: courage and fortitude; a person's ability to cope well with difficulties
Pronunciation (IPA): /ˈmet.əl/
Example Sentences
- The cooking competition really tested the chef's mettle when the oven broke down.
- She proved her mettle by completing the marathon despite the rain.
- The new employee's mettle was tested when he had to present to the CEO on his first day.
mettle
NOUN[/ˈmet.əl/]
courage and fortitude; a person's ability to cope well with difficulties
The young knight showed her mettle by standing firm against the dragon.
Test your mettle, let courage settle, brew strength in your kettle!
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🎤Pronunciation
🌳Etymology
Origin
From Middle English 'metal,' which comes from Old French 'metal' and Latin 'metallum.' The word's meaning shifted from the literal substance to metaphorically refer to a person's inner strength and character, similar to how metal represents durability and resilience.
Breakdown
mettle (from metal) - a single morpheme with no productive affixes in modern English, where the spelling variant 'mettle' emerged to distinguish the figurative sense (courage) from the literal sense (the substance).
🎵Rhyme
🔗Collocations
📝Examples
“The cooking competition really tested the chef's mettle when the oven broke down.”
“She proved her mettle by completing the marathon despite the rain.”
“The new employee's mettle was tested when he had to present to the CEO on his first day.”
“True mettle is shown not in victory, but in how you handle defeat.”
📚Related Words
Synonyms
Antonyms
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