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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

pickaxe.

A heavy iron tool with a wooden handle; one end of the head is pointed, the other has a chisel edge.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈpɪkˌæks/US
  1. A heavy iron tool with a wooden handle; one end of the head is pointed, the other has a chisel edge.

    He was mining stone using a pickaxe.
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English pykeaxe, pecaxe, pyke exe (“pickaxe”), an alteration (due to folk etymology association with pick and axe) of Middle English pikeyse, pikeys, pykois, from Anglo-Norman *pikeis, Old French picois, pecois, from Latin picōsa (“pickaxe”), from picca, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *pīk (“sharp point, pike”). Doublet of pique and pike.

verb/ˈpɪkˌæks/US
  1. To use a pickaxe.

Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English pykeaxe, pecaxe, pyke exe (“pickaxe”), an alteration (due to folk etymology association with pick and axe) of Middle English pikeyse, pikeys, pykois, from Anglo-Norman *pikeis, Old French picois, pecois, from Latin picōsa (“pickaxe”), from picca, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *pīk (“sharp point, pike”). Doublet of pique and pike.

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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.