How to pronounce purlieu
American English pronunciation
PURL-yoo
- IPA
- /ˈpɝlju/
- Syllables
- PURL · yoo (2 syllables, stress on the 1st)
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What purlieu means
The area around the edge of a place
In a sentence: Deer often wander into the purlieus of our town just before dark.
Where it comes from: In Middle English it meant land at the edge of a forest. It goes back to an old French word for walking around a boundary, and its spelling was later changed to look like lieu, the French word for place.
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