Word.ws English Dictionary

engrain

engrain is the alternative spelling of ingrain.

Meaning of ingrain

Verb

ingrain (third-person singular simple present ingrains, present participle ingraining, simple past and past participle ingrained)

  1. (transitive) To dye with a fast or lasting colour.
  2. (figuratively, transitive) To make (something) deeply part of something else.
    • The dirt was deeply ingrained in the carpet.

See all 6 meanings of ingrain

Forms of engrain

third-person singular presentengrains
present participleengraining
past participleengrained
pastengrained

Origin of engrain

From the French phrase en grain. See grain (“cochineal dye”).

Questions about engrain

What is engrain the alternative spelling of?
Engrain is the alternative spelling of ingrain.

Words near engrain in the dictionary

  1. engrailing
  2. engrailled
  3. engrailment
  4. engrailments
  5. engrails
  6. engrain
  7. engrained
  8. engrainer
  9. engrainers
  10. engraining
  11. engrains

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: engrain (page history and authors); ingrain (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “engrain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/engrain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.