: the field of a political contest : raceβused in the phrase throw one's hat in the ring
9
: food in the shape of a circle
pretzel rings
10
: an arrangement of atoms represented in formulas or models in a cyclic manner
called alsocycle
11
: a set of mathematical elements that is closed under two binary operations of which the first forms a commutative group with the set and the second is associative over the set and is distributive with respect to the first operation
12
rings plural
a
: a pair of usually rubber-covered metal rings suspended from a ceiling or crossbar to a height of approximately eight feet above the floor and used for hanging, swinging, and balancing feats in gymnastics
b
: an event in gymnastics competition in which the rings are used
Noun (1)
a ring of counterfeiters passing phony $20 bills
a metal ring encircled the barrel
a gaming ring that meets once a week to play
the coffee cup left a ring on the table Verb (1)
tall cypress trees ringing the park
the line of season ticket buyers ringed the block Verb (2)
I didn't hear the doorbell ringNoun (2)
give me a ring when you're ready to go
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Noun
Each molecule can contain more than two hundred carbon atoms, twisted into a dizzying array of rings and folds.βπ Image Jeffrey Marlow, New Yorker, 5 Apr. 2026 These are the natural patterns of vibration of the object, similar to how a bell rings after being struck.βπ Image Rupendra Brahambhatt, Interesting Engineering, 4 Apr. 2026
Verb
Blasts and sirens rang out across Israel, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on Friday as air defense systems tried to stave off Iranian drones and missiles.βπ Image Npr Staff, NPR, 3 Apr. 2026 Crew and his family eventually got to ring the bell signaling the end of his treatment this past October, and Cleveland Clinic Children's captured the emotional milestone in a video shared with Storyful.βπ Image ABC News, 3 Apr. 2026 See All Example Sentences for ring
Word History
Etymology
Noun (1)
Middle English, going back to Old English hring (masculine strong noun), going back to Germanic *hrenga- (whence also Old Frisian hring, ring "ring," Old Saxon hring "chain mail," Old High German ring, rinh "ring," Old Icelandic hringr), going back to dialectal Indo-European *krengho-, *krongho-, whence also Old Church Slavic krΗ«gΕ "circle, ring," Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian krΓ»g, Polish krΔ g
Note:
The only certain attestations of this etymon are in Germanic and Slavic. As it violates an Indo-European root structure constraint on co-occurrence of a voiceless stop and a voiced aspirate stop, the etymon is presumably late or post-Indo-European, or borrowed from an unknown source.
Verb (1)
Middle English ringen, derivative of ringring entry 1
Verb (2)
Middle English, from Old English hringan; akin to Old Norse hringja to ring
First Known Use
Noun (1)
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
