silk
/sɪlk/
silk noun: a fine fiber excreted by the silkworm or other arthropod (such as a spider).
Noun
silk (countable and uncountable, plural silks)
- A fine fiber excreted by the silkworm or other arthropod (such as a spider).
- We harvested a load of silk from the silkworm farm.
- A thread or yarn made from silk fibers.
- This is sewn from silk.
- A fine, soft cloth woven from silk yarn or thread.
- I'll buy a couple yards of silk.
- It was flood-tide along Fifth Avenue; motor, brougham, and victoria swept by on the glittering current; pretty women glanced out from limousine and tonneau; young men of his own type, silk-hatted, frock-coated, the crooks of their walking sticks tucked up under their left arms, passed on the Park...1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “His Own People”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 6
- A pair of long silk sheets suspended in the air on which a performer performs tricks.
- She's a master with the silks.
- A parachute.
- An article of clothing made from silk cloth.
- He's wearing his silk.
- The garments worn by a jockey displaying the colors of the horse's owner.
- The gown worn by a Senior (i.e., Queen's/King's) Counsel.
- A Queen's Counsel, King's Counsel or Senior Counsel.
- Anything which resembles silk, such as the filiform styles of the female flower of maize or the seed covering of bombaxes.
- Now that she had rested and had fed from the luncheon tray Mrs. Broome had just removed, she had reverted to her normal gaiety. She looked cool in a grey tailored cotton dress with a terracotta scarf and shoes and her hair a black silk helmet.1963, Margery Allingham, “Dangerous Lady”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 36
Verb
silk (third-person singular simple present silks, present participle silking, simple past and past participle silked)
- To develop silk.
- To remove the silk from (corn).
- While we shucked and silked the corn, we talked, sang old nursery rhymes […]2013, Lynetra T. Griffin, From Whence We Came, page 17
Proper noun capitalized: Silk
Silk (plural Silks)
- A surname originating as an occupation for a seller of silk.
silk meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
silk in Hindi
- fiber
- कौशेय kauśey, रेशम reśam, हरीर harīr
- fabric
- रेशम reśam, कौशेय kauśey
silk in Tamil
- fiber
- பட்டு paṭṭu
- fabric
- பட்டு paṭṭu
silk in Marathi
- रेशीम, रेशमाचे, रेशमाचा
silk in Urdu
- fiber
- ریشَم reśam, حَرِیر harīr
- fabric
- ریشَم reśam
More languagesFewer languages
- silk in Bengali
- রেশম reśom, সিল্ক śilko
- silk in Telugu
- పట్టు paṭṭu
- silk in Malayalam
- പട്ട് paṭṭŭ
- silk in Kannada
- ರೇಷ್ಮೆ rēṣme
- silk in Punjabi
- ਰੇਸ਼ਮ, ਰੇਸ਼ਮੀ, ਰੇਸ਼ਮ ਤੱਕ
- silk in Gujarati
- રેશમ reśam
- silk in Odia
- ରେଶମ reśama
- silk in Sanskrit
- कौशेय kauśeya
- silk in Sinhala
- පට paṭa
- silk in Assamese
- ৰেচম resom
- silk in Nepali
- रेशम, रेसम, सिल्क
- silk in Pashto
- ورېښم wrex̌əm
- silk in Tagalog
- sutla, seda
- silk in Arabic
- حَرِير ḥarīr, إبْرِيسِم ʔibrīsim, إبْرَيْسَم ʔibraysam
- silk in Malay
- sutera
- silk in Indonesian
- sutra
- silk in Thai
- ไหม mǎi, ผ้าไหม pâa-mǎi, แพร prɛɛ
- silk in Vietnamese
- tơ, chỉ tơ, vải lụa, lụa
- silk in Myanmar
- ပိုး pui:
- Dhivehi
- ފަށުި
Examples of silk in a sentence
- I have a terrible brown thumb. I could probably kill silk flowers.
- The label says this silk scarf should not be washed in the washing machine.
- With the engine on fire he had to punch out and hit the silk.
Forms of silk
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | silks |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | silks |
| present participle | silking |
| past participle | silked |
| past | silked |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Silks |
Origin of silk
From Middle English silk, sylk, selk, selc, from Old English sioloc, seoloc, seolc (“silk”). The immediate source is uncertain; it probably reached English via the Baltic trade routes (cognates in Old Norse silki (> Danish silke, Swedish silke (“silk”)), Russian шёлк (šolk), obsolete Lithuanian zilkai̇̃), all ultimately from Late Latin sēricus, from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós), ultimately from an Oriental language (represented now by e.g. Chinese 絲 /丝 (sī, “silk”)). Displaced Old English sīde (“silk”). Compare Seres. Doublet of seric and serge.
Words formed from silk
- ahimsa silk
- cactus silk
- cornsilk
- corn silk
- crow-silk
- desilk
- fart through silk
- floss silk
- floss-silk
- flox silk
- glass silk
- golden silk orb-weaver
- hit the silk
- Jap silk
- make a silk purse of a sow's ear
- nonsilk
- oiled silk
- peace silk
- raw silk
- sabra silk
- sea silk
- silk-cotton tree
- silk elevator
- silken
- silker
- silkette
- silkgrass
- silkgrower
- silkgrowing
- silk hat
- silkless
- silklike
- silkman
- silk moss
- silkmoth
- silkness
- silk-oak
- silk oak
- silk paper
- silk press
- silkpunk
- silk screen
- silkscreen
- silk screen effect
- silk-screen printing
- silk serge
- silk shag
- silk-stocking
- silkstone
- silktail
- silktassel
- silk tree
- silkware
- silkwear
- silkweaver
- silkweaving
- silkweed
- silkwoman
- silkwork
- silkworks
Phrases with silk
- silk oaks
- Silk Road
- take silk
- took silk
- silk shags
- silk trees
- taken silk
- takes silk
- water silk
- silk papers
- silk serges
- taking silk
16 more phrasesFewer phrases
- soft as silk
- widow's silk
- hits the silk
- milkweed silk
- silk elevators
- smooth as silk
- hitting the silk
- Silk Road disease
- silk screen effects
- golden silk orb-weavers
- Sri Lankan tussar silk moth
- Sri Lankan tussar silk moths
- made a silk purse of a sow's ear
- makes a silk purse of a sow's ear
- making a silk purse of a sow's ear
- you can't make a silk purse of a sow's ear
Words that rhyme with silk
Questions about silk
- What does silk mean?
- Silk means a fine fiber excreted by the silkworm or other arthropod (such as a spider).
- What is silk in Hindi?
- Silk in Hindi is कौशेय (kauśey), रेशम (reśam), हरीर (harīr). See Silk meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is silk?
- Silk can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce silk?
- Silk is pronounced /sɪlk/.
- What is the plural of silk?
- The plural of silk is silks.
Words near silk in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: silk (page history and authors); Silk (page history and authors); silk (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); silk (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); පට (Sinhala) (page history and authors); silk (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-silk.ogg.
Cite this entry: “silk.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/silk. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.