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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

briny.

Of, relating to, resembling, or containing brine (“water saturated or strongly impregnated with salt”), such as seawater or tears; salty.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈbɹaɪni/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. Of, relating to, resembling, or containing brine (“water saturated or strongly impregnated with salt”), such as seawater or tears; salty.

    on the briny deep
  2. Of a person: difficult to get along with or to like; acerbic, prickly, unlikable.

    figuratively
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree English brine Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y English -y English briny The adjective is from brine (noun) + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘having the quality of’). The noun is from the adjective.

noun/ˈbɹaɪni/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. The ocean, the sea.

    humorous · informal
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree English brine Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y English -y English briny The adjective is from brine (noun) + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘having the quality of’). The noun is from the adjective.

adj/ˈbɹaɪni/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. Especially of the sea: phosphorescent, shining.

    archaic · obsolete
Where this word comes from

Origin uncertain, possibly from Middle English brine (“act of burning; fire”, noun), from Old English bryne (“act of burning; fire, flame; heat”), from Proto-Germanic *bruniz (“act of burning; fire”), from *brinnaną (“to be on fire, burn”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁- (“to boil; to brew”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.