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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

oak.

A deciduous tree with distinctive deeply lobed leaves, acorns, and notably strong wood, typically of England and northeastern North America, included in genus Quercus.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/əʊk/Received-Pronunciation/oʊk/General-American/woʊk/obsolete
  1. A deciduous tree with distinctive deeply lobed leaves, acorns, and notably strong wood, typically of England and northeastern North America, included in genus Quercus.

    countable
  2. A deciduous tree with distinctive deeply lobed leaves, acorns, and notably strong wood, typically of England and northeastern North America, included in genus Quercus. The wood of the oak.

    uncountable
  3. A deciduous tree with distinctive deeply lobed leaves, acorns, and notably strong wood, typically of England and northeastern North America, included in genus Quercus. A rich brown color, like that of oak wood.

    countable · uncountable
  4. A deciduous tree with distinctive deeply lobed leaves, acorns, and notably strong wood, typically of England and northeastern North America, included in genus Quercus. The flavor of oak.

    countable · uncountable
  5. Any member of species of the genus Quercus, in family Fagaceae.

    countable · uncountable
  6. Any member of other species of trees resembling typical oaks of genus Quercus in some ways. she-oaks in Allocasuarina and Casuarina, of family Casuarinaceae

    countable · uncountable
  7. Any member of other species of trees resembling typical oaks of genus Quercus in some ways. white oaks Lagunaria, in family Malvaceae

    countable · uncountable
  8. Any member of other species of trees resembling typical oaks of genus Quercus in some ways. silky oaks, in family Proteaceae

    countable · uncountable
  9. Any member of other species of trees resembling typical oaks of genus Quercus in some ways. poison oak Toxicodendron, in family Anacardiaceae

    countable · uncountable
  10. Any member of other species of trees resembling typical oaks of genus Quercus in some ways. tanbark oaks or stone oaks, of species of genera Lithocarpus and Notholithocarpus in family Fagaceae.

    countable · uncountable
  11. The outer (lockable) door of a set of rooms in a college or similar institution. (Often in the phrase sport one's oak.)

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English ake, hok, oek, ok, oke, from Old English aac, āc, ǣċ, from Proto-West Germanic *aik, from Proto-Germanic *aiks (“oak”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyǵ- (“oak”). Cognates From Proto-Germanic: Scots aik, ake, yik (“oak”), North Frisian iake, iik (“oak”), Saterland Frisian Eeke (“oak”), West Frisian iik (“oak”), Cimbrian aicha, oach (“oak”), Dutch eik (“oak”), German Eiche (“oak”), Luxembourgish Eech (“oak”), Vilamovian aach, aeh́, ǡh́ (“oak”), Danish eg (“oak”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Norwegian Nynorsk eik (“oak”), Norwegian Bokmål eik, ek (“oak”), Swedish ek (“oak”). From Proto-Indo-European: Latin aesculus (“Italian oak”), Ancient Greek αἰγίλωψ (aigílōps, “Turkey oak”), Albanian enjë (“English yew; stinking juniper”), Latvian ozols (“oak”), Lithuanian ąžuolas (“oak”).

adj/əʊk/Received-Pronunciation/oʊk/General-American/woʊk/obsolete
  1. Having a rich brown color, like that of oak wood.

    not-comparable
  2. Made of oak wood or timber.

    not-comparable
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English ake, hok, oek, ok, oke, from Old English aac, āc, ǣċ, from Proto-West Germanic *aik, from Proto-Germanic *aiks (“oak”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyǵ- (“oak”). Cognates From Proto-Germanic: Scots aik, ake, yik (“oak”), North Frisian iake, iik (“oak”), Saterland Frisian Eeke (“oak”), West Frisian iik (“oak”), Cimbrian aicha, oach (“oak”), Dutch eik (“oak”), German Eiche (“oak”), Luxembourgish Eech (“oak”), Vilamovian aach, aeh́, ǡh́ (“oak”), Danish eg (“oak”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Norwegian Nynorsk eik (“oak”), Norwegian Bokmål eik, ek (“oak”), Swedish ek (“oak”). From Proto-Indo-European: Latin aesculus (“Italian oak”), Ancient Greek αἰγίλωψ (aigílōps, “Turkey oak”), Albanian enjë (“English yew; stinking juniper”), Latvian ozols (“oak”), Lithuanian ąžuolas (“oak”).

verb/əʊk/Received-Pronunciation/oʊk/General-American/woʊk/obsolete
  1. To expose to oak in order for the oak to impart its flavors.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English ake, hok, oek, ok, oke, from Old English aac, āc, ǣċ, from Proto-West Germanic *aik, from Proto-Germanic *aiks (“oak”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyǵ- (“oak”). Cognates From Proto-Germanic: Scots aik, ake, yik (“oak”), North Frisian iake, iik (“oak”), Saterland Frisian Eeke (“oak”), West Frisian iik (“oak”), Cimbrian aicha, oach (“oak”), Dutch eik (“oak”), German Eiche (“oak”), Luxembourgish Eech (“oak”), Vilamovian aach, aeh́, ǡh́ (“oak”), Danish eg (“oak”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Norwegian Nynorsk eik (“oak”), Norwegian Bokmål eik, ek (“oak”), Swedish ek (“oak”). From Proto-Indo-European: Latin aesculus (“Italian oak”), Ancient Greek αἰγίλωψ (aigílōps, “Turkey oak”), Albanian enjë (“English yew; stinking juniper”), Latvian ozols (“oak”), Lithuanian ąžuolas (“oak”).

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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.