Word.ws English Dictionary

kilter

Syllables: kilt·er/ˈkɪltə/US/ˈkɪltɚ/

kilter noun: chiefly in out of kilter: (good) condition, form, or order; fettle.

Noun (1)

kilter (uncountable)

  1. Chiefly in out of kilter: (good) condition, form, or order; fettle.
    • not in kilter
    • [T]hey are either round-shouldered, knock-kneed, bow-legged, or parrot-toed; some are also badly cross-eyed. It seems as if they can see two different ways at the same time. Jack says they are lop-sided and out of kilter altogether.1890, Charles Erskine, chapter V, in Twenty Years before the Mast: […], Boston, Mass.: Published by the author, →OCLC, page 72

Noun (2)

kilter (plural kilters)

  1. A hand of playing cards which is useless.

kilter meaning in Tamil

kilter in Tamil

பணிச்செப்பம்

Forms of kilter

alternative formkelter
pluralkilters

Origin of kilter

A variant of dialectal kelter (“good condition, order”), of unknown origin; possibly related to kilt (“to gather up (skirts) around the body”) (cognate with Danish kilte (“to tuck”)), or Scots kilt (“proper way of doing something, knack”) (probably from kilt (“a slope; a tilt”), possibly a variant of English tilt). In the 19th century, kelter was the more common form in the United Kingdom, while kilter was more common in the United States. Due to the influence of the latter, kilter is now the more prevalent form in all English varieties.

Probably a variant of dialectal kelter (“odds and ends; litter, rubbish”); further etymology unknown.

Words formed from kilter

Phrases with kilter

Words that rhyme with kilter

Questions about kilter

What does kilter mean?
Kilter means chiefly in out of kilter: (good) condition, form, or order; fettle.
What is kilter in Tamil?
Kilter in Tamil is பணிச்செப்பம். See Kilter meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is kilter?
Kilter is a noun.
How do you pronounce kilter?
Kilter is pronounced /ˈkɪltə/ (UK).
What is the plural of kilter?
The plural of kilter is kilters.

Words near kilter in the dictionary

  1. kilt pin
  2. kilt pins
  3. kilted
  4. kilted sausage
  5. kilted sausages
  6. kilter
  7. kilters
  8. kiltie
  9. kilties
  10. Kiltimagh
  11. kilting

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kilter (page history and authors); kilter (Tamil Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-kilter.wav.

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