slain
/sleɪ̯n/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Australia/slæɪ̯n/
slain is the past participle of slay.
Meaning of slay
Verb
slay (third-person singular simple present slays, present participle slaying, simple past slew or slayed, past participle slain or slayed or (obsolete) yslain)
- To kill; to murder.
- The knight slew the dragon.
- Synonyms:
- annihilate, bag, baptize, bereave of life, blight, bring down, bump off, bury, cack, compromised to a permanent end
- To eradicate or stamp out.
- You must slay these thoughts.
- To defeat; to overcome (in a competition or contest).
- The Yankees were actually slayed by two former Yankees because Rich Gossage pitched one scoreless inning in relief of Eckersley to notch his first victory.1993 April 21, Jack Curry, “Yanks’ Bullpen Falls Short Again”, in The New York Times
- Synonyms:
- conquer
- To delight or overwhelm, especially with laughter.
- Ha ha! You slay me!
- Synonyms:
- hit it out of the park, kill
- To amaze, stun, or otherwise incapacitate by excellence; to excel at something.
- Your outfit slays!
- To have sex with.
- Synonyms:
- coitize, go to bed with, sleep with, Formal terms, bed, coit, dight, enjoy, feague, go in unto
Noun
the slain pl (plural only)
- Those who have been killed.
- […]Morat ! the proud, the patriot field ! where man ¶ May gaze on ghastly trophies of the slain, ¶ Nor blush for those who conquered on that plain ; ¶ Here Burgundy bequeath'd his tombless host, ¶ A bony heap, through ages to remain, ¶ Themselves their monument ;— the Stygian coast ¶ Unsepulchred...1816, Lord Byron, “Canto III”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Third, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […], →OCLC, stanza LXIII, page 36
- While the Valkyries were the choosers of the valorous slain, they were also obedient to the call of any in distress who asked their help.1906, Mary Elizabeth Lewis, The Ethics of [Richard] Wagner's “The Ring of the Nibelung”, page 41
Words formed from slain
Phrases with slain
Words that rhyme with slain
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- drain
- pane
- gain
- main
- sustain
- vein
- entertain
- skein
- Wayne
- abstain
- bane
- campaign
- champagne
- crane
- entrain
- fain
- insane
- maine
- pain
- plane
- stain
- wane
- Aquitaine
- ascertain
- chicane
- contain
- detain
- explain
- maintain
- mundane
- obtain
- refrain
- remain
- vane
- amain
- arcane
- Blaine
- complain
- deign
- detrain
- distrain
- kane
- ordain
- pertain
- profane
- public domain
- reign
- swain
Questions about slain
- What does slain mean?
- Slain means those who have been killed.
- What is slain the past participle of?
- Slain is the past participle of slay.
- What part of speech is slain?
- Slain is a noun.
- How do you pronounce slain?
- Slain is pronounced /sleɪ̯n/ (UK).
Words near slain in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: slain (page history and authors); slay (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Pvanp7-slain.wav, en-us-slain.ogg.
Cite this entry: “slain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/slain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
