How to pronounce chestnut
American English pronunciation
CHES-nut
- IPA
- /ˈtʃɛsnʌt/
- Syllables
- CHES · nut (2 syllables, stress on the 1st)
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What chestnut means
Most people know chestnut in its everyday sense. Here's its other meaning.
An old joke or story told so often it has gone stale
In a sentence: Grandpa told his old chestnut about the talking goat again, and we all groaned.
Where it comes from: This meaning may come from an 1816 play, The Broken Sword. In it, one character starts a story about a chestnut tree, and another stops him because he has told it so many times.
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