"how long is a piece of string" meaning in All languages combined

See how long is a piece of string on Wiktionary

Phrase [English]

Audio: En-au-how long is a piece of string.ogg Forms: How long is a piece of string [canonical]
Head templates: {{head|en|phrase|head=How long is a piece of string?}} How long is a piece of string?
  1. (colloquial, often humorous, rhetorical question) Used as a response to a question such as "How long will it take?" or "How big is it?" when the length or size is unknown, infinite, variable, or relative. Tags: colloquial, humorous, often, rhetoric Categories (topical): English rhetorical questions
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "How long is a piece of string",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase",
        "head": "How long is a piece of string?"
      },
      "expansion": "How long is a piece of string?",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "name": "English rhetorical questions",
          "parents": [
            "Rhetorical questions",
            "Idioms",
            "Questions",
            "Sentences",
            "Figures of speech",
            "Multiword terms",
            "Rhetoric",
            "Lemmas",
            "Language",
            "Communication",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used as a response to a question such as \"How long will it take?\" or \"How big is it?\" when the length or size is unknown, infinite, variable, or relative."
      ],
      "id": "en-how_long_is_a_piece_of_string-en-phrase-h02cFMzW",
      "links": [
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "unknown",
          "unknown#English"
        ],
        [
          "infinite",
          "infinite#English"
        ],
        [
          "variable",
          "variable#English"
        ],
        [
          "relative",
          "relative#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, often humorous, rhetorical question) Used as a response to a question such as \"How long will it take?\" or \"How big is it?\" when the length or size is unknown, infinite, variable, or relative."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "humorous",
        "often",
        "rhetoric"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-how long is a piece of string.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/93/En-au-how_long_is_a_piece_of_string.ogg/En-au-how_long_is_a_piece_of_string.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/En-au-how_long_is_a_piece_of_string.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "how long is a piece of string"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "How long is a piece of string",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase",
        "head": "How long is a piece of string?"
      },
      "expansion": "How long is a piece of string?",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English humorous terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrases",
        "English rhetorical questions",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "Pages with 1 entry"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used as a response to a question such as \"How long will it take?\" or \"How big is it?\" when the length or size is unknown, infinite, variable, or relative."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "unknown",
          "unknown#English"
        ],
        [
          "infinite",
          "infinite#English"
        ],
        [
          "variable",
          "variable#English"
        ],
        [
          "relative",
          "relative#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, often humorous, rhetorical question) Used as a response to a question such as \"How long will it take?\" or \"How big is it?\" when the length or size is unknown, infinite, variable, or relative."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "humorous",
        "often",
        "rhetoric"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-how long is a piece of string.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/93/En-au-how_long_is_a_piece_of_string.ogg/En-au-how_long_is_a_piece_of_string.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/En-au-how_long_is_a_piece_of_string.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "how long is a piece of string"
}

Download raw JSONL data for how long is a piece of string meaning in All languages combined (1.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-09-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-08-20 using wiktextract (8e41825 and f99c758). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.