stilt
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Any of different wading birds of the genera Himantopus and Cladorhynchus, related to the avocet, that have extremely long legs and long thin bills.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
stiltIPA pronunciation (US)
stɪlt
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
Any of various wading birds of the genera Himantopus and Cladorhynchus, related to the avocet, that have extremely long legs and long thin bills.
Either of two poles with footrests that allow someone to stand or walk above the ground; used mostly by entertainers.
A tall pillar or post used to support some structure; often above water.
A crutch.
The handle of a plough.
verb
To raise on stilts, or as if on stilts
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Any of various wading birds of the genera Himantopus and Cladorhynchus, related to the avocet, that have extremely long legs and long thin bills.
Used this way, stilt 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
- Moderate
- 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 stilt
- “He was so tall I thought he was on stilts.”noun
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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.
Long-legged three-toed black-and-white wading bird of inland ponds and marshes or brackish lagoons.
Stilt of Europe and Africa and Asia having mostly white plumage but with black wings.
Long-legged three-toed black-and-white wading bird of inland ponds and marshes or brackish lagoons.
Long-legged three-toed wading bird of brackish marshes of Australia.
Stilt of the southwest Pacific including Australia and New Zealand having mostly white plumage but with black wings and nape of neck.
Web-footed Australian stilt with reddish-brown pectoral markings.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API (CC BY-SA 3.0). Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.