elk
noun
Simple meaning
Any of the subspecies of the moose, that occurs only in Europe and Asia.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ehlkIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɛlk
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
chiefly europecommonwealth
Any of the subspecies of the moose (Alces alces, the largest member of the deer family, alternatively named Eurasian elk to avoid confusion with the wapiti), that occurs only in Europe and Asia.
Large northern deer with enormous flattened antlers in the male; called `elk' in Europe and `moose' in North America
Large North American deer with large much-branched antlers in the male
CanadaUS
Common deer of temperate Europe and Asia
canadaus
Common wapiti (Cervus canadensis), the second largest member of the deer family, once thought to be a subspecies of red deer.
Any of various large species of deer such as the red deer, moose or wapiti.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Any of the subspecies of the moose (Alces alces, the largest member of the deer family, alternatively named Eurasian elk to avoid confusion with the wapiti), that occurs only in Europe and Asia.
Used this way, elk is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in family or home contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Family/home
Nearby words
- alces alces , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use elk
- “We hoped to see an elk when we visited the national park.”
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: any of the subspecies of the moose (Alces alces
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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.