Word.ws English Dictionary

message stick

message stick noun: a piece of wood, etched with angular lines and dots, traditionally used by Australian aborigines to communicate messages between different clans and language groups.

Noun

message stick (plural message sticks)

  1. (Australia) A piece of wood, etched with angular lines and dots, traditionally used by Australian aborigines to communicate messages between different clans and language groups.
    • The use of message-sticks is not universal in Australian tribes, and the degree of perfection reached in conveying information by them differs much.1889, A. W. Howitt, Australian Message-sticks and Messengers, British Association for the Advancement of Science, Report of the Annual Meeting, Volume 58, page 842
    • ‘This one-man white-feller name Tommy,’ explained Davey. ‘He wantem sell you message-stick.’ Message-sticks did not particularly interest me, but Tommy’s beseeching grin as he thrust out the stick won the day, or rather the tobacco.1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 103

Synonyms of message stick

Forms of message stick

pluralmessage sticks
alternative formmessage-stick

Questions about message stick

What does message stick mean?
Message stick means a piece of wood, etched with angular lines and dots, traditionally used by Australian aborigines to communicate messages between different clans and language groups.
What part of speech is message stick?
Message stick is a noun.
What is the plural of message stick?
The plural of message stick is message sticks.

Words near message stick in the dictionary

  1. message in a bottle
  2. message pump
  3. message pumps
  4. message queue
  5. message queues
  6. message stick
  7. message sticks
  8. message unit
  9. message units
  10. message-driven architecture
  11. message-driven architectures

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: message stick (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: en-au-message stick.ogg.

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