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PlainSpell

kink

/ˈkɪŋk/verb, noun

kink is spelled K-I-N-K: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.6 times per million words in written English, the 22,073rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, kink means “To laugh loudly” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in kink?

Letters4: K-I-N-K
Syllables1
In writing1.6 times per million words; the 22,073rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is kink?

Kink appears 1.6 times per million words in written English, the 22,073rd 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).

How do you pronounce kink?

  • US /ˈkɪŋk/
  • US [ˈkʰɪŋk]
  • /ˈkiŋk/

Kink has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-kink.ogg, En-au-kink.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with kink

Also written: chink.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with kink?

9 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as kink from its last stressed vowel (/ɪŋk/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of kink

  • kinks present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • kinking participle, present
  • kinked participle, past
  • chink
  • k1nk
  • k!nk
  • k/nk
  • k*nk

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

What does kink mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To laugh loudly.

  2. 2

    To gasp for breath as in a severe fit of coughing.

  3. 3

    To form a kink or twist.

  4. 4

    To be formed into a kink or twist.

noun

  1. 1

    ScotlandA convulsive fit of coughing or laughter; a sonorous indraft of breath; a whoop; a gasp of breath caused by laughing, coughing, or crying.

  2. 2

    A tight curl, twist, or bend in a length of thin material, hair etc.

    We couldn't get enough water to put out the fire because of a kink in the hose.

  3. 3

    A difficulty or flaw that is likely to impede operation, as in a plan or system.

    They had planned to open another shop downtown, but their plan had a few kinks.

  4. 4

    An unreasonable notion; a crotchet; a whim; a caprice.

  5. 5

    Peculiarity or deviation in sexual behaviour or taste.

  6. 6

    A person with peculiar sexual tastes.

  7. 7

    Any sexual preference outside normal or expected norms.

  8. 8

    A positive 1-soliton solution to the sine-Gordon equation.

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

Kink in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcoude (tight curl, twist, or bend), hic, imprévu (difficulty or flaw that impedes operation), bizarrerie, excentricité, perversion (peculiarity in sexual behaviour or taste)
GermanKnick, Kurve (tight curl, twist, or bend), Macke (difficulty or flaw that impedes operation), Perversion (peculiarity in sexual behaviour or taste)
Portuguesedobra, prega (tight curl, twist, or bend), tara, perversidade (peculiarity in sexual behaviour or taste)
Spanisharruga, pliegue, doblez, dobladura, doblegadura, retorcedura (tight curl, twist, or bend)

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 kink come from?

From Middle English kinken, kynken, from Old English *cincian (attested in cincung), from Proto-West Germanic *kinkōn, from Proto-Germanic *kinkōną (“to laugh”), from Proto-Indo-European *gang- (“to mock, jeer, deride”), related to Old English canc (“jeering, scorn, derision”). Cognate with Dutch kinken (“to kink, cough”).

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

What to look up after kink