Sleek or slick?
sleek is an adjective meaning “Having an even, smooth surface; smooth”; slick is an adjective meaning “Slippery or smooth due to a covering of liquid; often used to describe…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) slick is about 2.3 times as common as sleek.
What is the difference between sleek and slick?
| sleek | slick | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, adverb, verb, noun | adjective, noun, verb, adverb |
| Meaning | Having an even, smooth surface; smooth Glossy To make smooth or glossy; to polish | Slippery or smooth due to a covering of liquid; often used to describe appearances Sleek; smooth A covering of liquid, particularly oil |
| Example | sleek hair | This rain is making the roads slick |
| Forms | sleeker, sleekest | slicker, slickest |
| Pronunciation | /sliːk/ | /slɪk/ |
| In writing | 2.2 times per million words | 5.1 times per million words |
Sources: sleek and slick in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of sleek and slick
sleek
- 1
Having an even, smooth surface; smooth
sleek hair
- 2
colloquialdatedWith ease and dexterity
- 3
To make smooth or glossy; to polish
- 4
That which makes smooth; varnish
- 5
Glossy
- 6
datedTo calm or soothe
- 7
Not rough or harsh
- 8
datedTo glide
slick
- 1
Slippery or smooth due to a covering of liquid; often used to describe appearances
This rain is making the roads slick
- 2
A covering of liquid, particularly oil
Careful in turn three – there's an oil slick on the road
- 3
To make slick
The surface had been slicked
- 4
colloquialAlternative form of sleek (“with ease and dexterity”)
- 5
Alternative form of schlich
- 6
Sleek; smooth
- 7
USdatedA rapidly-expanding ring of dark water, resembling an oil slick, around the site of a large underwater explosion at shallow depth, marking the progress through the water of the shock wave generated…
- 8
Appearing expensive or sophisticated
They read all kinds of slick magazines
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, sleek or slick?
sleek appears 2.2 times per million words; slick 5.1 times per million words.
sleek 2.2 times per million wordsslick 5.1 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search sleek vs slick?
“sleek vs slick” is searched about 110 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“slick vs sleek”, “sleek or slick”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.