kile
/kaɪl/noun
kile is a noun meaning “An ulcer; sore” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled K-I-L-E and has one syllable, and it appears about once in every 14 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of kile is kiles.
What does kile mean?
noun
- 1
An ulcer; sore.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce kile?
- /kaɪl/
Kile has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-kile.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of kile
- kiles plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is kile?
Kile appears about once in every 14 million words in written English, the 113,022nd 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).
Words people confuse with kile
Sounds like: chyle, kyle (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Where does kile come from?
From Middle English kile, kyle, kylle, from Old Norse kýli (“boil”), from Proto-Germanic *kūlǭ, *kūlijǭ (“boil”), from Proto-Indo-European *gewl- (“vessel, bowl, ball”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bend, curve, vault”). Cognate with Icelandic kýli (“wen, boil”), Swedish kula (“boil, bulge; pit”), Danish kule (“boil, bump; pit”), German Keule (“club”), German Kuhle (“hollow”), Dutch kuil (“pit, hole”). See also keel.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).