kayak
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A small canoe made up of a light frame made watertight with animal skins.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kyakSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkaɪæk
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
A small canoe consisting of a light frame made watertight with animal skins; used by Eskimos
A type of small boat, covered over by a surface deck, powered by the occupant or occupants using a double-bladed paddle in a sitting position, from a hole in the surface deck.
verb
intransitive
To use a kayak, to travel or race in a kayak.
transitive
To traverse (a body of water) by kayak.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A small canoe consisting of a light frame made watertight with animal skins; used by Eskimos
Used this way, kayak is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It stays understated rather than dramatic. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Mild
- 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 kayak
- “We plan to kayak down the river next weekend if the weather is good.”verb
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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.