canker

CEFRC2

/ˈkæŋkɚ/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A painful small sore inside the mouth.

  2. 02

    noun

    A disease that damages plants or trees.

Examples

  • I bit the inside of my lip and got a canker sore.

  • My canker hurts, so I can't really eat.

At a glance

Sits at C2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A region of dead plant tissue caused by such a disease.

  2. A worm or grub that destroys plant buds or leaves; cankerworm.

  3. A plant disease marked by gradual decay.

More examples

In context

  • the canker of destitution and violence.

  • Slightly sunken brown cankers of variable size and shape affect stem parts primarily below the soil line.

  • loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud[…]

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The blank on the tree trunk caused the branch to wither completely.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English canker, cancre, from Old English cancer (“cancer; crab”), akin to Dutch kanker, Old High German chanchar. Ultimately from Latin cancer (“a cancer”). Doublet of cancer, a later borrowing from Latin, and chancre, which came through French.