wrinkle
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A small furrow, ridge or crease in an otherwise smooth surface.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ringkuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɹɪŋkəl
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 small furrow, ridge or crease in an otherwise smooth surface.
A line or crease in the skin, especially when caused by age or fatigue.
A fault, imperfection or bug especially in a new system or product; typically, they will need to be ironed out.
A twist on something existing; a novel difference.
verb
Make wrinkles or creases on a smooth surface; make a pressed, folded or wrinkled line in; `crisp' is archaic
intransitive
To pucker or become uneven or irregular.
Gather or contract into wrinkles or folds; pucker
transitive
To make wrinkles in; to cause to have wrinkles.
intransitiveof skin
To develop irreversibly wrinkles; to age.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A small furrow, ridge or crease in an otherwise smooth surface.
Used this way, wrinkle is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It stays understated rather than dramatic. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Mild
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- crinkle , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use wrinkle
- “They finally have the wrinkles pretty well ironed out.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Marked by wrinkles.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Of fabric that does not wrinkle easily.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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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.