musk
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A greasy secretion with a powerful odour, produced in a glandular sac of the male musk deer and used in the manufacture of perfumes.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
muhskIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmʌsk
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 greasy secretion with a powerful odour, produced in a glandular sac of the male musk deer and used in the manufacture of perfumes.
A similar secretion produced by the otter and the civet.
An odorous glandular secretion from the male musk deer; used as a perfume fixative
The scent of a greasy glandular secretion from the male musk deer
A synthetic organic compound used as a substitute for the above.
A muskflower (Erythranthe moschata).
verb
transitive
To perfume with musk.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Formality
- Technical
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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.
Large shaggy-coated bovid mammal of Canada and Greenland.
Eurasian perennial naturalized in eastern North America having very spiny white cottony foliage and nodding musky crimson flower heads.
Small freshwater turtle having a strong musky odor.
Small heavy-limbed upland deer of central Asia.
Low annual European herb naturalized in America.
Large crested wild duck of Central America and South America.
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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.