linn

/lɪn/US/ˈlɪn/

linn noun: a waterfall or cataract (torrent of water running over a rocky bed), or a ravine down which such a waterfall rushes.

Image: Iain Thompson, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

linn (plural linns)

(Northern England, Scotland, Wales) A waterfall or cataract (torrent of water running over a rocky bed), or a ravine down which such a waterfall rushes.
- What seek we here / Amid this waste where desolation scowls, / And the red torrent, brawling down the linn, / Sings everlasting discord?1814, J. H. Craig [pseudonym; James Hogg], The Hunting of Badlewe: A Dramatic Tale, London: H[enry] Colburn; Edinburgh: G. Goldie, →OCLC, page 1; quoted in “The Hunting of Badlewe, a Dramatic Tale....
- "For it's o'er the bank, and it's o'er the linn,
  "And it's up to the meadow ridge—"
  "Ay," quo' the Stumpie hirpling in,1844 December, “The Legend of Stumpie's Brae”, in The Dublin University Magazine, page 720

Noun (2)

linn (plural linns)

(Northern England, Scotland, Wales) A pool of water, especially one formed and agitated by the water from a cascade.
- There frisks the freckl'd finny tribe,
  In linns both wide and steep.1812, “Poems”, in Forbes, section 49
- In the clear linn the trouts shuttled from stone and crevice.1823, Galt, Gilhaize, section XXVIII

Proper noun capitalized: Linn

Linn

A surname.
A city and town in Kansas, United States.
A small city, the county seat of Osage County, Missouri, United States.
A town in Wisconsin, United States.

linn meaning in Urdu

linn in Urdu

آبشار

Examples of linn in a sentence

Hear! now, Yon linn's melodious thunder!1896, Lewis Proudlock, The Borderland Muse, page 51:
The pool is there — the true linn, in the original acceptance of the word — dark and bottomless.1868 September 24, James Hardy, addressed delivered at Chirnside, quoted in the History of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, volume 5...
Hard by the farm, it leaped a little precipice in a thick grey-mare's tail of twisted filaments, and then lay and worked and bubbled in a linn.1885, Robert Louis Stevenson, Prince Otto:
His successful angler landing the linn-lier [fish that inhabits a pool of water].1894, Furth, Haliburton, section 177:

Forms of linn

plural	linns
alternative form	lin
alternative form	lyn
alternative form	lynn

Origin of linn

From Middle English *linne, from Old English hlynn (“torrent”).

From Scottish Gaelic or Irish linn (“pool, pond”), or else a Brythonic source such as Cumbric *lınn, all from Proto-Celtic *lindos (“lake, liquid”). Conflated to some extent with linn (“waterfall”).

Words formed from linn

Words that rhyme with linn

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about linn

What does linn mean?: Linn means a waterfall or cataract (torrent of water running over a rocky bed), or a ravine down which such a waterfall rushes.
What is linn in Urdu?: Linn in Urdu is آبشار. See Linn meaning in Urdu.
How do you use linn in a sentence?: Hear! now, Yon linn's melodious thunder!
What part of speech is linn?: Linn can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce linn?: Linn is pronounced /lɪn/.
What is the plural of linn?: The plural of linn is linns.

Words near linn in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: linn (page history and authors); Linn (page history and authors); linn (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-lin.wav.

Cite this entry: “linn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/linn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.