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husk

noun · verb

Simple meaning

The dry, leafy or stringy exterior of certain vegetables or fruits, which must be removed before eating the meat inside.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

huhsk
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈhʌsk

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. The dry, leafy or stringy exterior of certain vegetables or fruits, which must be removed before eating the meat inside.

  2. figuratively

    Any form of useless, dried up, and subsequently worthless exterior of something.

  3. An infection in cattle caused by a species of Dictyocaulus or lungworm

  4. The supporting frame of a run of millstones.

verb

  1. intransitive

    To cough, clear one's throat.

  2. Remove the husks from

  3. transitive

    To say huskily, to utter in a husky voice.

Word at a Glance

Frequency
Rare
Formality
Technical

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The dry, leafy or stringy exterior of certain vegetables or fruits, which must be removed before eating the meat inside.

Used this way, husk 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

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

More ways to use husk

  • “A coconut has a very thick husk.”noun
  • “His attorney was a dried-up husk of a man.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Material / outer

outer huskmere husk

Dry

coconut husk

Remove

dry husk

Other combinations

rice huskcorn huskempty huskhusk ash

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • huskynounDerived noun · specialist

    Breed of heavy-coated Arctic sled dog.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • husk tomatonounCompound term

    Any of numerous cosmopolitan annual or perennial herbs of the genus Physalis bearing edible fleshy berries enclosed in a bladderlike husk.

  • husking beenounCompound term

    A social gathering for the purpose of husking corn.

  • mexican husk tomatonounCompound term

    Annual of Mexico and southern United States having edible purplish viscid fruit resembling small tomatoes.

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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.