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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

silk.

A fine fiber excreted by the silkworm or other arthropod (such as a spider).

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/sɪlk/

  1. A fine fiber excreted by the silkworm or other arthropod (such as a spider).

    uncountable
    We harvested a load of silk from the silkworm farm.

  2. A thread or yarn made from silk fibers.

    countable · uncountable
    This is sewn from silk.

  3. A fine, soft cloth woven from silk yarn or thread.

    countable · uncountable
    I'll buy a couple yards of silk.

  4. A fine, soft cloth woven from silk yarn or thread. A pair of long silk sheets suspended in the air on which a performer performs tricks.

    countable · in-plural · uncountable
    She's a master with the silks.

  5. A fine, soft cloth woven from silk yarn or thread. A parachute.

    countable · uncountable

  6. An article of clothing made from silk cloth.

    countable · uncountable
    He's wearing his silk.

  7. An article of clothing made from silk cloth. The garments worn by a jockey displaying the colors of the horse's owner.

    countable · plural-normally · uncountable

  8. An article of clothing made from silk cloth. The gown worn by a Senior (i.e., Queen's/King's) Counsel.

    countable · uncountable

  9. An article of clothing made from silk cloth. The gown worn by a Senior (i.e., Queen's/King's) Counsel. A Queen's Counsel, King's Counsel or Senior Counsel.

    colloquial · countable · figuratively · metonymically · uncountable

  10. Anything which resembles silk, such as the filiform styles of the female flower of maize or the seed covering of bombaxes.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English silk, sylk, selk, selc, from Old English sioloc, seoloc, seolc (“silk”). The immediate source is uncertain; it probably reached English via the Baltic trade routes (cognates in Old Norse silki (> Danish silke, Swedish silke (“silk”)), Russian шёлк (šolk), obsolete Lithuanian zilkai̇̃), all ultimately from Late Latin sēricus, from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós), ultimately from an Oriental language (represented now by e.g. Chinese 絲 /丝 (sī, “silk”)). Displaced Old English sīde (“silk”). Compare Seres. Doublet of seric and serge.

verb/sɪlk/

  1. To develop silk.

    intransitive

  2. To remove the silk from (corn).

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English silk, sylk, selk, selc, from Old English sioloc, seoloc, seolc (“silk”). The immediate source is uncertain; it probably reached English via the Baltic trade routes (cognates in Old Norse silki (> Danish silke, Swedish silke (“silk”)), Russian шёлк (šolk), obsolete Lithuanian zilkai̇̃), all ultimately from Late Latin sēricus, from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós), ultimately from an Oriental language (represented now by e.g. Chinese 絲 /丝 (sī, “silk”)). Displaced Old English sīde (“silk”). Compare Seres. Doublet of seric and serge.

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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.