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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

notch.

A V-shaped cut.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/nɒtʃ/Received-Pronunciation/nɑtʃ/General-American/nɔtʃ/Australia, British, Southern, Standard/nɔːtʃ/
  1. A V-shaped cut.

  2. A V-shaped cut. Such a cut, used for keeping a record.

    The notches in that tribe's warrior axe handles stand for killed enemies.
  3. An indentation.

  4. A mountain pass; a defile.

  5. The female primary sex organ, vulva.

    slang
  6. A woman.

    US · slang
  7. A discontinuous change in a taxation schedule.

  8. A level or degree.

    informal
    This car is a notch better than the other.
    Can you speak a notch louder, please?
  9. A portion of a mobile phone that overlaps the edge of the screen, used to house a camera, sensors etc. while maximizing screen space.

Where this word comes from

Recorded since 1577, probably a rebracketing of an otch, from Middle French oche (“notch”), itself from the Old French verb ochier (“to notch”), of uncertain origin, but possibly related to French hocher and English nick (“small cut, notch”).

verb/nɒtʃ/Received-Pronunciation/nɑtʃ/General-American/nɔtʃ/Australia, British, Southern, Standard/nɔːtʃ/
  1. To cut a notch in (something).

    transitive
  2. To record (a score or similar) by making notches on something.

    transitive
    The tribe's hunters notch their kills by notches on each's axe's handle.
  3. To join by means of notches.

    transitive
  4. To achieve (something); to add to one's score or record of successes.

    informal · transitive
    The team notched a pair of shutout wins on Sunday.
  5. Synonym of nock (“to fit (an arrow) to a bow”).

    transitive
  6. To change in small graduations.

    transitive
    to notch back a salary
Where this word comes from

Recorded since 1577, probably a rebracketing of an otch, from Middle French oche (“notch”), itself from the Old French verb ochier (“to notch”), of uncertain origin, but possibly related to French hocher and English nick (“small cut, notch”).

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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.