tick
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A tiny woodland arachnid of the suborder Ixodida.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
tikIPA pronunciation (US)
tɪk
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A tiny woodland arachnid of the suborder Ixodida.
A mark on any scale of measurement; a unit of measurement.
“At midday, the long bond is up a tick.”
A relatively quiet but sharp sound generally made repeatedly by moving machinery.
“The steady tick of the clock provided a comforting background for the conversation.”
birdwatching
A bird seen (or heard) by a birdwatcher, for the first time that day, year, trip, etc., and thus added to a list of observed birds.
AustraliaNew ZealandBritishIreland
A mark (✓) made to indicate agreement, correctness or acknowledgement.
“Indicate that you are willing to receive marketing material by putting a tick in the box.”
UKcolloquial
Credit, trust.
verb
To make a clicking noise similar to the movement of the hands in an analog clock.
To go on trust, or credit.
To strike gently; to pat.
informalintransitive
To work or operate, especially mechanically.
“He took the computer apart to see how it ticked.”
To make a tick or checkmark.
To give tick; to trust.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
How It’s Used
The word’s distinct uses, one example each.
Marknoun
“At midday, the long bond is up a tick.”
Relativelynoun
“The steady tick of the clock provided a comforting background for the conversation.”
Workverb
“He took the computer apart to see how it ticked.”
More ways to use tick
- “He counted the ticks of the clock.”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.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The hollow muscular organ located behind the sternum and between the lungs.
A metallic tapping sound.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A continuous thin ribbon of paper on which stock quotes are written.
A problematic situation that will eventually become dangerous if not addressed.
Caused by rickettsial bacteria and transmitted by wood ticks.
Put a check mark on or near or next to.
Run disconnected or idle.
A game in which two players alternately put crosses and circles in one of the compartments of a square grid of nine spaces.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: tiny woodland arachnid of the suborder Ixodida
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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.