Impalement
Definition: Impalement
Impalement
Noun
1. The act of piercing with a sharpened stake as a form of punishment or torture.
impale
• verb transfix or pierce with a sharp instrument.
— DERIVATIVES impalement noun impaler noun.
— ORIGIN Latin impalare, from palus ‘a stake’.
Impalement is an act of torture or execution whereby the victim is pierced by a long stake, through the sides, or even from rectum through the mouth. The stake would be usually planted in the ground, leaving the victim hanging to die from blood loss. Medieval tyrants like Vlad III Dracula and Ivan the Terrible were quite fond of dispatching undesirables in this way. It was also used as a systematic way of executing prisoners immediately after a battle. Impalement is considered a very cruel and painful death.
Usage Frequency: Impalement
"Impalement" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Impalement" is used about 6 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Definition: Impalement
Impalement
Noun
1. The act of piercing with a sharpened stake as a form of punishment or torture.
impale
• verb transfix or pierce with a sharp instrument.
— DERIVATIVES impalement noun impaler noun.
— ORIGIN Latin impalare, from palus ‘a stake’.
Impalement is an act of torture or execution whereby the victim is pierced by a long stake, through the sides, or even from rectum through the mouth. The stake would be usually planted in the ground, leaving the victim hanging to die from blood loss. Medieval tyrants like Vlad III Dracula and Ivan the Terrible were quite fond of dispatching undesirables in this way. It was also used as a systematic way of executing prisoners immediately after a battle. Impalement is considered a very cruel and painful death.
Usage Frequency: Impalement
"Impalement" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Impalement" is used about 6 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
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