eldertongue

Modern English → Old English

Old English word for brain

3 headwords match “brain”, ranked by the scoring in the data pipeline. The five strongest follow; brægn ranks first.

  1. 1

    brægn

    score 24

    noun, neuter · strong a-stem · 6 inflected forms

    brain — brain

    • opens the headword's definition
    • listed as an English descendant
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular bræġn
    genitive singular bræġnes
    dative singular bræġne
    accusative singular bræġn
    nominative plural bræġnu
    genitive plural bræġna
  2. 2

    hærn

    score 15

    noun, feminine · strong ō-stem · 6 inflected forms

    brain — brain

    • opens the headword's definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular hærn
    genitive singular hærne
    dative singular hærne
    accusative singular hærne
    nominative plural hærna, hærne
    genitive plural hærna
  3. 3

    eagmore

    score 9

    noun, feminine · weak n-stem · 4 inflected forms

    brain — a nerve connecting the eye to the brain

    • appears in the definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular ēagmore
    genitive singular ēagmoran
    dative singular ēagmoran
    accusative singular ēagmoran
    nominative plural ēagmoran
    genitive plural ēagmorena

How this ranking works

Scores are computed once, when the site is built, from the Wiktionary data. Every headword whose definitions mention “brain” gets the points below; the candidates are then sorted by total. The score is shown on each entry above so the order can be checked rather than trusted.

The English word opens the headword's definition+10
It appears later in the first definition+6
It appears in any definition+3
It is in the headword's links+2
It is listed as an English descendant (etymological evidence)+9
The headword has an inflection table+3
Part of speech is a proper noun−5
Part of speech is a verb (-ian derivations are noisy)−3
The headword is an alternative form−6
The first definition is longer than three words−2

A candidate has to be a real headword with its own entry: inflected forms and grammatical terminology (genitive, nominative, preterite, …) never appear here.

Not one of these?

The match may be a different sense of “brain”, or an inflected form rather than a headword. Look up the form directly — the entry page marks the grammatical case.

Candidates derived from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0). Each entry links to its source page. · CC BY-SA 4.0 and attribution · CC BY-SA 4.0