atomy

¹ American  

[at-uh-mee] / ˈæt ə mi /

noun

• atomies
  plural

1. an atom; mote.

2. a small creature; pygmy.

---

atomy ² American  

[at-uh-mee] / ˈæt ə mi /

noun

• atomies
  plural

1. a skeleton.

---

atomy ¹ British  

/ ˈætəmɪ /

noun

1. an atom or minute particle

2. a minute creature

---

atomy ² British  

/ ˈætəmɪ /

noun

1. an obsolete word for skeleton

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• atomies
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of atomy¹

1585–95; singular use of Latin atomī, plural of atomus atom

Origin of atomy²

1590–1600; variant of anatomy (taken as an atomy )

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

atomy atomies

The Wait felt so strange that he took the furry atomy without protest, and popped it into his mouth without any feelings that it was going to be nasty.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

I sometimes think scorn of us as a nation that we so gladly and peaceably put our necks beneath the sceptre of such an atomy.

From The Lost Treasure of Trevlyn A Story of the Days of the Gunpowder Plot by Evelyn Everett-Green

Often she would turn her back upon that wizened atomy of quirks and false ideals, and let her bosom pant to think to-night!—to-night!—to-night!

From Doom Castle by Neil Munro

“Yer mither wull be proud o’ ye the nicht,” said the Incubus on the atomy, “when it’s tell’t her that ye hae whanged at an auld machine, and frichtet twa leddies to the skirlin’!

From Tales from "Blackwood," Volume 2 by Various

But there was a man called Brygandyne—Bob Brygandyne—Clerk of the King’s Ships, a little, smooth, bustling atomy, as clever as a woman to get work done for nothin’—a won’erful smooth-tongued pleader.

From Rewards and Fairies by Rudyard Kipling

“Epicurus maintains that everything we see, we see because a fine film of atomies is constantly shed by all matter, a sort of mist of particles which strikes the eye.”

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson

Look not so wilder'd; for these things are true, And never can be born of atomies That buzz about our slumbers, like brain-flies, Leaving us fancy-sick.

From Endymion A Poetic Romance by John Keats

Thirty-two years since, up against the sun, Seven shapes, thin atomies to lower sight, Labouringly leapt and gained thy gabled height, And four lives paid for what the seven had won.

From Poems on Travel by Various

But the layer of live atomies on it is not an inch thick, probably not a tenth of an inch. 

From Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley

The surgeons are atomies and pettifoggers, who kill more than they cure.

From Character Writings of the 17th Century by Various

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---