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slick

adjective · noun · verb · adverb

Simple meaning

Slippery or smooth due to a covering of liquid.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

slik
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈslɪk

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.

adjective

  1. Slippery or smooth due to a covering of liquid; often used to describe appearances.

  2. Sleek; smooth.

  3. often sarcastic

    Clever, making an apparently hard task look easy.

  4. Superficially convincing but actually untrustworthy.

  5. Appearing expensive or sophisticated.

noun

  1. A covering of liquid, particularly oil.

  2. Someone who is clever and untrustworthy.

  3. A tool used to make something smooth or even.

  4. A term of address, generally applied to males, possibly including strangers, implying that the person addressed is slick in the sense of "sophisticated", but often used sarcastically.

  5. A film of oil or garbage floating on top of water

  6. The finer portion of crushed ore, as of gold, lead, or tin, separated by the water in certain wet processes.

verb

  1. Make slick or smooth

adverb

  1. colloquial

    With ease and dexterity.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Slippery or smooth due to a covering of liquid; often used to describe appearances.

Used this way, slick 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
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

  • silky , a specialist term, precise but narrower

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

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Clever

slick rock

Finer

pretty slickslick paper

Other combinations

slick magazineslick surface

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • slick upverbCompound term

    Make neat, smart, or trim.

  • slick downverbCompound term

    Give a smooth and glossy appearance.

  • slick magazinenounCompound term

    A magazine printed on good quality paper.

  • oil slicknounCompound term

    A thin film of oil floating on top of water (especially crude oil spilled from a ship).

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: slippery or smooth due to a covering of liquid

sleekslipperyglibDatedsilkyTechnical

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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.