wick
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A braid or bundle of fibre or other porous material in a candle, kerosene heater, oil lamp.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
wikIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈwɪk
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
countable
A braid or bundle of fibre or other porous material (now generally twisted or woven cotton) in a candle, kerosene heater, oil lamp, etc., that draws up a liquid fuel (such as melted tallow or wax, or oil) at one end, to be ignited at the other end to produce a flame.
Any piece of cord that conveys liquid by capillary action
A shot where the played bowl or stone touches a stationary bowl or stone just enough that the former changes direction; a cannon.
countable
A basket made of wickers ("flexible branches or twigs of a plant such as willow woven together"); a creel.
A number of places in England
A town in north-eastern Caithness, Highland council area, Scotland (OS grid ref ND3650).
verb
intransitive
Of a material: to convey or draw off liquid by capillary action.
intransitive
Chiefly followed by through or up: of a liquid: to move by capillary action through a porous material.
transitive
To strike (a stationary bowl or stone) with one's own bowl or stone just enough that the former changes direction; to cannon.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A braid or bundle of fibre or other porous material (now generally twisted or woven cotton) in a candle, kerosene heater, oil lamp, etc., that draws up a liquid fuel (such as melted tallow or wax, or oil) at one end, to be ignited at the other end to produce a flame.
Used this way, wick 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 wick
- “The physician put a wick in the wound to drain it.”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.
Morally bad in principle or practice.
Slender flexible branches or twigs (especially of willow or some canes).
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A basket made of wickerwork.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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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.