Word.ws English Dictionary

sticks and stones

sticks and stones is the ellipsis of sticks and stones may break my bones.

Noun

sticks and stones (plural not attested)

  1. (idiomatic, no plural) any obsolete technology (usually of military and law enforcement purposes) when used in comparison to state of the art technology used by the antagonists or competitors.
    • I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.20th century, (famous quote)

Questions about sticks and stones

What does sticks and stones mean?
Sticks and stones means any obsolete technology (usually of military and law enforcement purposes) when used in comparison to state of the art technology used by the antagonists or competitors.
What is sticks and stones the ellipsis of?
Sticks and stones is the ellipsis of sticks and stones may break my bones.
What part of speech is sticks and stones?
Sticks and stones is a noun.

Words near sticks and stones in the dictionary

  1. stickpusher
  2. stickpushers
  3. sticks
  4. sticks a needle in my eye
  5. sticks and carrots
  6. sticks and stones
  7. sticks and stones may break my bones
  8. sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me
  9. sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me
  10. sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me
  11. sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sticks and stones (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.oga.

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