silk

CEFRB1

/sɪlk/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A soft, shiny material made by silkworms.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A fine, soft cloth woven from silk fibers.

Examples

  • The caterpillar spins the silk around its entire body.

  • The dress is of silk.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
3

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

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

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

  3. The gown worn by a Senior (i.e. Queen's/King's) Counsel.

More examples

In context

  • We deal in silk goods.

  • The thread made of silk was barely visible.

  • While we shucked and silked the corn, we talked, sang old nursery rhymes […]

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The luxurious dress was made of blank, a natural fiber produced by silkworms.

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

Nearby

Origin

noun

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.