Word.ws English Dictionary

ink

/ˈɪŋk/

ink noun: a pigment (or dye)-based fluid used for writing, printing etc.

ink: a pigment (or dye)-based fluid used for writing, printing etc
Image: Snorky, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

ink (usually uncountable, plural inks)

  1. (usually) A pigment (or dye)-based fluid used for writing, printing etc.
    • This form should be filled out in ink.
    • While I was waiting for him in the Matted Gallery, a young man was most finely working in Indian inke the great picture of the King and Queen sitting [Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France], by Van Dyke [Anthony van Dyck]; and did it very finely.1667 May 5 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “April 26th, 1667”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume VI, London...
  2. (countable, usually) A particular type, color or container of this fluid.
  3. (usually) The black or dark-colored fluid ejected by squid, octopus etc, as a protective strategy.
    • Experimentally, some ink has been shown to be unpalatable to fish (Wood et al. 2010) and observationally, ink can also function as an attractant to predators to give cephalopods a bit more time to escape.2017 August 9, Mark Carnall, “Why do cephalopods produce ink? And what's ink made of, anyway?”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 15 Mar 2023
  4. (slang, usually) Publicity.
    • to get ink
    • The TSA has been getting a lot of ink lately.
  5. (slang, usually) Tattoo work.
    • "I saw it hanging on the wall of a tattoo hut where I went to get some ink done ten years ago," he stuttered, flushing in splotches and squirming in his chair.1998, Richard Dooling, Brain Storm
    • Now he's getting a tattoo / Yeah, he's getting ink done / He asked for a 13, / But they drew a 311998, “Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)”, performed by The Offspring
    Synonyms:
    paint
  6. (slang, usually) Cheap red wine.

Verb

ink (third-person singular simple present inks, present participle inking, simple past and past participle inked)

  1. (transitive) To apply ink to; to cover or smear with ink.
    • A plain impression is obtained by pressing the bulb of the finger, with the plane of the nail parallel to the plane of the plate, on the inked plate and then on the paper in the same manner.1919, R. H. Leigh, How to Obtain Good Finger Prints, third edition, U.S. Navy Department Bureau of Navigation, page 1
  2. (transitive) To sign (a contract or similar document).
    • Before Musk, America’s space industry was moribund. In 2011, NASA mothballed the last space shuttle, after inking a deal with SpaceX to make uncrewed cargo resupply runs to the International Space Station (ISS).2021 December 13, Molly Ball, Jeffrey Kluger, Alejandro de la Garza, “Elon Musk: Person of the Year 2021”, in Time Magazine, archived from the original on 13 Dec 2021
  3. (transitive) To apply a tattoo to (someone).
  4. (intransitive) to eject ink (sense 3)

ink meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

ink in Hindi

coloured fluid used for writing
स्याही syāhī

ink in Tamil

coloured fluid used for writing
மை mai

ink in Marathi

coloured fluid used for writing
शाई śāī

ink in Urdu

coloured fluid used for writing
سِیاہی siyāhī
More languagesFewer languages
ink in Bengali
কালি kali
ink in Telugu
సిరా sirā
ink in Malayalam
മഷി maṣi
ink in Kannada
ಶಾಯಿ śāyi
ink in Punjabi
مس mas, ਸਿਆਹੀ siāhī, سیاہی siyāhī, ਮੱਸ massa
ink in Gujarati
શાહી śāhī
ink in Odia
କାଳି kāḷi
ink in Sanskrit
मसी masī
ink in Sinhala
තීන්ත tīnta
ink in Assamese
চিয়াঁহী siãhi
ink in Nepali
मसी masī
ink in Pashto
ورېغ wreǧ, سياهي siyāhi
ink in Tagalog
tinta
ink in Arabic
حِبْر ḥibr, مِدَاد midād
ink in Malay
dakwat, mangsi, tinta
ink in Indonesian
tinta
ink in Thai
หมึก mʉ̀k, น้ำหมึก mʉ̀k
ink in Vietnamese
mực
ink in Myanmar
မင် mang
Sindhi
مَسُ masu

Examples of ink in a sentence

  • Please vote your ballot using black or blue ink, then seal your ballot inside the privacy envelope.
  • The dampness in the writing paper caused the ink to spread and smudge.
  • I've got a form that is to be filled in in ink.

All 40 example sentences with ink

Synonyms of ink

1 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of ink

Forms of ink

Noun
pluralinks
alternative form (obsolete)inke
Verb
third-person singular presentinks
present participleinking
past participleinked
pastinked

Past tense of ink: inked

Plural of ink: inks

Origin of ink

From Middle English ynke, from Old French enque, from Latin encaustum (“purple ink used by Roman emperors to sign documents”), from Ancient Greek ἔγκαυστον (énkauston, “burned-in”), from ἐν (en, “in”) + καίω (kaíō, “burn”). In this sense, displaced native Old English blæc (“ink”, literally “black”). Sense four refers to the ink used in newspapers.

Words formed from ink

Phrases with ink

43 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with ink

35 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about ink

What does ink mean?
Ink means a pigment (or dye)-based fluid used for writing, printing etc.
What is ink in Hindi?
Ink in Hindi is स्याही (syāhī). See Ink meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is ink?
Ink can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce ink?
Ink is pronounced /ˈɪŋk/.
What is the plural of ink?
The plural of ink is inks.

Words near ink in the dictionary

  1. injustice collections
  2. injustice collector
  3. injustice collectors
  4. injustices
  5. injustly
  6. ink
  7. ink ball
  8. ink balls
  9. ink bomb
  10. ink bombs
  11. ink bottle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ink (page history and authors); سیاہی (Punjabi) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-ink.ogg.

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