How to pronounce scruple
American English pronunciation
SKROO-pul
- IPA
- /ˈskɹupəl/
- Syllables
- SKROO · pul (2 syllables, stress on the 1st)
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What scruple means
Most people know scruple in its everyday sense. Here's its other meaning.
A tiny old unit of weight, equal to twenty grains
In a sentence: The old chemist weighed out one scruple of powder on his tiny brass scale.
Where it comes from: It comes from the Latin scrupulum, a tiny weight, one twenty-fourth of an ounce. Its parent word scrupulus meant a small sharp stone, and also an uneasy doubt.
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