Word.ws English Dictionary

pickaxe

/ˈpɪkˌæks/

pickaxe noun: a heavy iron tool with a wooden handle; one end of the head is pointed, the other has a chisel edge.

pickaxe: a heavy iron tool with a wooden handle; one end of the head is pointed, the other has a chisel edge
Image: Hyena, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

pickaxe (plural pickaxes)

  1. A heavy iron tool with a wooden handle; one end of the head is pointed, the other has a chisel edge.
    • He was mining stone using a pickaxe.

Verb

pickaxe (third-person singular simple present pickaxes, present participle pickaxing, simple past and past participle pickaxed)

  1. To use a pickaxe.

pickaxe meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam and Kannada

pickaxe in Hindi

heavy iron tool
गैंती ga͠itī

pickaxe in Marathi

pickaxe
टिकाव ṭikāv

pickaxe in Malayalam

heavy iron tool
കോടാലി kōṭāli, പിക്കാസ് pikkāsŭ

pickaxe in Kannada

ಗುದ್ದಲಿ
More languagesFewer languages
pickaxe in Tagalog
patik
pickaxe in Arabic
مِعْوَل miʕwal, فَأْس faʔs
pickaxe in Indonesian
gancu, belencong
pickaxe in Persian
کلنگ kolang
pickaxe in Thai
อีเต้อ ii-dtə̂ə
pickaxe in Vietnamese
cuốc chim, cúp

Forms of pickaxe

Noun
pluralpickaxes
alternative USpickax
alternative formpick-axe
Verb
third-person singular presentpickaxes
present participlepickaxing
past participlepickaxed
pastpickaxed

Origin of pickaxe

Inherited from Middle English pykeaxe, pecaxe, pyke exe (“pickaxe”), an alteration (due to folk etymology association with pick and axe) of Middle English pikeyse, pikeys, pykois, from Anglo-Norman *pikeis, Old French picois, pecois, from Latin picōsa (“pickaxe”), from picca, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *pīk (“sharp point, pike”). Doublet of pique and pike.

Words formed from pickaxe

Phrases with pickaxe

Questions about pickaxe

What does pickaxe mean?
Pickaxe means a heavy iron tool with a wooden handle; one end of the head is pointed, the other has a chisel edge.
What is pickaxe in Hindi?
Pickaxe in Hindi is गैंती (ga͠itī). See Pickaxe meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is pickaxe?
Pickaxe can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce pickaxe?
Pickaxe is pronounced /ˈpɪkˌæks/ (US).
What is the plural of pickaxe?
The plural of pickaxe is pickaxes.

Words near pickaxe in the dictionary

  1. pickaroons
  2. Pickars
  3. Pickaway
  4. Pickaway County
  5. pickax
  6. pickaxe
  7. Pickaxe Mountain
  8. pickaxed
  9. pickaxer
  10. pickaxes
  11. pickaxing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pickaxe (page history and authors); टिकाव (Marathi) (page history and authors); pickaxe (Kannada 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-pickaxe.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-pickaxe.wav.

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