overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

silken.

Made of silk.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈsɪlkən/
  1. Made of silk.

    not-comparable
    a silken veil
  2. Synonym of silky, like silk, silklike, particularly Having a smooth, soft, or light texture.

    not-comparable
  3. Synonym of silky, like silk, silklike, particularly Suave.

    not-comparable
  4. Synonym of silky, like silk, silklike, particularly Having a smooth, soft, or flowing utterance; attractive or (typically derogatory) convincing through pleasing expression.

    figuratively · not-comparable
  5. Dressed in silk.

    not-comparable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English silken, selken, seolkene, from Old English seolcen, from seolc (“silk”) + -en, from an unattested early Proto-West Germanic borrowing from Latin sēricum, from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós, “silken”), from σήρ (sḗr, “silkworm”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”). Equivalent to silk + -en (“made of”). Cognate with Scots selkin, silkin (“silken”), Icelandic silki (“silken”).

verb/ˈsɪlkən/
  1. To render silken or silklike.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English silken, selken, seolkene, from Old English seolcen, from seolc (“silk”) + -en, from an unattested early Proto-West Germanic borrowing from Latin sēricum, from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós, “silken”), from σήρ (sḗr, “silkworm”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”). Equivalent to silk + -en (“made of”). Cognate with Scots selkin, silkin (“silken”), Icelandic silki (“silken”).

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

silken has 6 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

silken studiosilken workshello, silken

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

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.