curl

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A curving piece or lock of hair.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kurl

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈkɝl

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

A curving piece or lock of hair; a ringlet.
A curved stroke or shape.
A spin making the trajectory of an object curve.

verb

transitive
To cause to move in a curve.
intransitive
To move in curves.
To twist or form (the hair, etc.) into ringlets.
To raise in waves or undulations; to ripple.
transitive
To make into a curl or spiral.
intransitive
To assume the shape of a curl or spiral.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency: Moderately Common
Typical Use: Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A curving piece or lock of hair; a ringlet.

Used this way, curl 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

gyre , more formal, and heavier in everyday conversation

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

More ways to use curl

“The cigar smoke curled up at the ceiling.”verb
“She curled farther down under the covers.”verb

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Exercise

biceps curl

Various

leaf curl

Concave

leg curl

Other combinations

hair curl

Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

curlingnounInflected form
A game played on ice in which heavy stones with handles are slid toward a target.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

curlyadjectiveDerived adjective
Having curls or waves.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

curling ironnounCompound term
A cylindrical metal home appliance that heats a lock of hair that has been curled around it.
curl upverbCompound term
Shape one's body into a curl.
curled leaf pondweednounCompound term
European herb naturalized in the eastern United States and California.
hair curlernounCompound term
A mechanical device consisting of a cylindrical tube around which the hair is wound to curl it.
kiss curlnounCompound term
A spiral curl plastered on the forehead or cheek.
leg curlnounCompound term
An exercise designed to strengthen the flexor muscles of the leg.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

curly-coated retrievernounRelated term
An English breed having a tightly curled black or liver-colored coat.
pincurl clipnounRelated term
A variety of clip for holding pin curls.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to cause to move in a curve

curl up

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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.