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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

tinkle.

To make light metallic sounds, rather like a very small bell.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈtɪŋkəl/US
  1. To make light metallic sounds, rather like a very small bell.

    intransitive
    The glasses tinkled together as they were placed on the table.
  2. To cause to tinkle.

    transitive
  3. To indicate, signal, etc. by tinkling.

    transitive
    The butler tinkled dinner.
  4. To hear, or resound with, a small, sharp sound.

  5. To urinate.

    informal · intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English tinclen, equivalent to tink + -le (frequentative suffix). Cognate with West Frisian tinkelje (“to tinkle”), Dutch tinkelen (“to tinkle”), German Low German tinkeln (“to flicker, glitter, sparkle”).

noun/ˈtɪŋkəl/US
  1. A light metallic sound, resembling the tinkling of bells or wind chimes.

    countable · uncountable
  2. A telephone call.

    UK · countable · informal · uncountable
    Give me a tinkle when you arrive.
  3. An act of urination.

    countable · euphemistic · informal · uncountable
  4. Urine.

    countable · euphemistic · informal · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English tinclen, equivalent to tink + -le (frequentative suffix). Cognate with West Frisian tinkelje (“to tinkle”), Dutch tinkelen (“to tinkle”), German Low German tinkeln (“to flicker, glitter, sparkle”).

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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.