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PlainSpell

forelock

/ˈfɔː(ɹ)lɒk/noun, verb

forelock is a noun meaning “The part of a person's hairstyle which covers the forehead” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-O-R-E-L-O-C-K, and it appears about once in every 16 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of forelock is forelocks.

What does forelock mean?

noun

  1. 1

    The part of a person's hairstyle which covers the forehead.

    we also will call the infernal guards to cast him into hell.

  2. 2

    The part of a horse's (or similar animal's) mane that lies on its forehead.

  3. 3

    A wedge pushed through a hole at the end of a bolt to hold it in place.

verb

  1. 1

    To fix in place with a forelock (wedge)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce forelock?

  • /ˈfɔː(ɹ)lɒk/

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-forelock.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of forelock

  • forelocks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • forelocking participle, present
  • forelocked participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is forelock?

Forelock appears about once in every 16 million words in written English, the 121,279th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Forelock in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchfrange (hair that hangs over the forehead), toupet (front part of a mane)
GermanStirnhaar, Stirnlocke (hair that hangs over the forehead)
Portuguesefranja (hair that hangs over the forehead)
Spanishflequillo (hair that hangs over the forehead), copete (front part of a mane)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does forelock come from?

From Middle English *forelock, *forelok, from Old English forelocc, equivalent to fore- + lock.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).