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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

lank.

Slender or thin; not well filled out; not plump; shrunken; lean.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈlæŋk/[ˈlæŋk]/ˈleɪ̯ŋk/Canada, US[ˈleɪ̯ŋk] ~ /ˈlɛ̃ŋk/Canada, US

  1. Slender or thin; not well filled out; not plump; shrunken; lean.

  2. Meagre, paltry, scant in quantity.

    obsolete

  3. Straight and flat; thin and limp. (Often associated with being greasy.)

  4. Languid; drooping, slack.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English lank, from Old English hlanc, from Proto-West Germanic *hlank, from Proto-Germanic *hlankaz (“lank, thin”), from Proto-Indo-European *kleng- (“to bend, turn, wind, twist”); compare German lenken (“to turn”), Gelenk (“joint”), Old High German hlanca (“hip, side, flank”), and English link (of a chain).

verb/ˈlæŋk/[ˈlæŋk]/ˈleɪ̯ŋk/Canada, US[ˈleɪ̯ŋk] ~ /ˈlɛ̃ŋk/Canada, US

  1. To become lank.

    intransitive · rare
Where this word comes from

From Middle English lank, from Old English hlanc, from Proto-West Germanic *hlank, from Proto-Germanic *hlankaz (“lank, thin”), from Proto-Indo-European *kleng- (“to bend, turn, wind, twist”); compare German lenken (“to turn”), Gelenk (“joint”), Old High German hlanca (“hip, side, flank”), and English link (of a chain).

noun/ˈlæŋk/[ˈlæŋk]/ˈleɪ̯ŋk/Canada, US[ˈleɪ̯ŋk] ~ /ˈlɛ̃ŋk/Canada, US

  1. A clump of lank hair.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English lank, from Old English hlanc, from Proto-West Germanic *hlank, from Proto-Germanic *hlankaz (“lank, thin”), from Proto-Indo-European *kleng- (“to bend, turn, wind, twist”); compare German lenken (“to turn”), Gelenk (“joint”), Old High German hlanca (“hip, side, flank”), and English link (of a chain).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.