Word.ws English Dictionary

wilk

/ˈwɪlk/

wilk is the obsolete form of whelk.

Meaning of whelk

Noun (1)

whelk (plural whelks)

  1. Certain edible sea snails, especially, any one of numerous species of large marine gastropods belonging to Buccinidae, much used as food in Europe.

Noun (2)

whelk (plural whelks)

  1. (archaic) Pimple.
    • his face is all bubukles , and whelks , and knobs1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
  2. A stripe or mark; a ridge; a wale.

Proper noun capitalized: Wilk

Wilk (plural Wilks)

  1. An English surname originating as a patronymic.
  2. A surname from Polish.

Synonyms of wilk

Forms of wilk

Noun
pluralwilks
Proper noun
pluralWilks
alternative formWilke
alternative formWilkie
alternative formWilkey
alternative formWilks
alternative formWilkes

Origin of wilk

* (Polish surname): From Polish Wilk, from Polish wilk (“wolf”), * (English surname): A back-formation from Wilkin, from a medieval diminutive of the given name Will.

Words that rhyme with wilk

12 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about wilk

What does wilk mean?
Wilk means an English surname originating as a patronymic.
What is wilk the obsolete form of?
Wilk is the obsolete form of whelk.
What part of speech is wilk?
Wilk is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce wilk?
Wilk is pronounced /ˈwɪlk/.

Words near wilk in the dictionary

  1. wiling out
  2. wiliwili
  3. wiliwilis
  4. wilja
  5. wiljas
  6. wilk
  7. Wilke
  8. wilkeite
  9. Wilken
  10. Wilkening
  11. Wilkenings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wilk (page history and authors); Wilk (page history and authors); whelk (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-wilk.wav.

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