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crinkle

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A wrinkle, fold, crease.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kringkuhl

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈkɹɪŋkəl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A wrinkle, fold, crease, or unevenness.

  2. The act of crinkling.

verb

  1. ambitransitive

    To fold, crease, crumple, or wad.

  2. intransitive

    To rustle, as stiff cloth when moved.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Frequency
Rare

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A wrinkle, fold, crease, or unevenness.

Used this way, crinkle is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

  • rumple , rarer, so it draws attention

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

eyes crinklecrinkle virusturnip crinkleleaf crinklecrinkle cutcrinkle cragsface crinkleblack crinkle

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • crinkle-rootnounCompound term

    North American herb with pungent scaly or toothed roots.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: wrinkle or fold or crease or or unevenness

crumplelinefurrowrumpleRare

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.