Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

argy-bargy

/ˈɑɹdʒiˌbɑɹdʒi/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: 1.31 in modern English

Syllables: ar-gy-bar-gy
IPA: /ˈɑɹdʒiˌbɑɹdʒi/

19

Scrabble Score

9

Letters

4

Syllables

5

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A noisy disagreement, often with some fighting

British usage; Countable; Uncountable

verb

British usage

Example Sentences

"There was a wee bit of an argy-bargy outside the pub."
"At least if you adopt a zero tolerance approach, when you next see a banner advertising “CD’s, DVD’s, Video’s, and Book’s”, you won’t just stay indoors getting depressed about it. Instead you will engage in some direct-action argy-bargy!"
"Ten minutes at the least did she stand at the door argy-bargying with that man."

Etymology

From Scots, variant of argle-bargle, documented since 1822, presumably due to replacement of -le (“frequentative”) with -y (“diminutive”), documented since 1857, but without effect on the meaning.

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /ˈɑɹdʒiˌbɑɹdʒi/
British English: /ˈɑːdʒiˌbɑːdʒi/

Usage

Inflected Forms

argy-bargies (plural) argie bargie (alternative) argie-bargie (alternative) argy bargy (alternative) argy-bargies (present, singular) argy-bargying (participle, present) argy-bargied (participle, past) argy-bargied (past)

Synonyms

argle-bargle argol-bargol

Questions

How do you pronounce argy-bargy?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˈɑɹdʒiˌbɑɹdʒi/.
What does argy-bargy mean?: A noisy disagreement, often with some fighting
Where does argy-bargy come from?: From Scots, variant of argle-bargle, documented since 1822, presumably due to replacement of -le (“frequentative”) with -y (“diminutive”), documented since 1857, but without effect on the meaning.

How to pronounce argy-bargy

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