milk
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Produced by mammary glands of female mammals for feeding their young.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
milkIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmɪlk
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
Produced by mammary glands of female mammals for feeding their young
countableinformal
An individual serving of milk.
uncountableby extension
A white (or whitish) liquid obtained from a vegetable source such as almonds, coconuts, oats, rice, or soy beans.
countable or invariant
An individual portion of milk, such as found in a creamer, for tea and coffee.
The ripe, undischarged spat of an oyster.
verb
transitive
To express a liquid from a creature.
transitivefigurative
To make excessive use of (a particular point in speech or writing, a source of funds, etc.); to exploit; to take advantage of (something).
of an electrical storage battery
To give off small gas bubbles during the final part of the charging operation.
Add milk to
transitive
To express milk from (a mammal, especially a cow).
transitiveintransitive
To draw (milk) from the breasts or udder.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Produced by mammary glands of female mammals for feeding their young
Used this way, milk 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 milk
- “Cows need to be milked every morning.”verb
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A van (typically powered by electricity) with an open side that is used to deliver milk to houses.
A milky white translucent or opaque glass.
Congenital disorder consisting of an inability to digest milk and milk products.
Painful thrombosis of the femoral vein in the leg following childbirth.
Purgative consisting of a milky white liquid suspension of magnesium hydroxide.
Dehydrated milk.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Frothy drink of milk and flavoring and sometimes fruit or ice cream.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
Use This Word
See how this word sounds in a real sentence.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “milk” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
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.