silk
/sɪlk/noun, verb
silk is spelled S-I-L-K: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 13 times per million words in written English, the 5,957th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, silk means “A fine fiber excreted by the silkworm or other arthropod (such as a spider)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of silk is silks.
How many letters and syllables are in silk?
| Letters | 4: S-I-L-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 13 times per million words; the 5,957th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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 silk?
Silk appears 13 times per million words in written English, the 5,957th 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 silk?
- /sɪlk/
Silk 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: En-us-silk.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with silk?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as silk.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: skil.
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 silk
- silks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- silking participle, present
- silked participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does silk mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A fine fiber excreted by the silkworm or other arthropod (such as a spider).
We harvested a load of silk from the silkworm farm.
- 2
A thread or yarn made from silk fibers.
This is sewn from silk.
- 3
A fine, soft cloth woven from silk yarn or thread.
I'll buy a couple yards of silk.
- 4
A pair of long silk sheets suspended in the air on which a performer performs tricks.
She's a master with the silks.
- 5
A parachute.
- 6
An article of clothing made from silk cloth.
He's wearing his silk.
- 7
The garments worn by a jockey displaying the colors of the horse's owner.
- 8
The gown worn by a Senior (i.e., Queen's/King's) Counsel.
verb
- 1
To develop silk.
- 2
To remove the silk from (corn).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Silk in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense fiber:
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 silk come from?
From Middle English silk, sylk, selk, selc, from Old English sioloc, seoloc, seolc (“silk”). The immediate source is uncertain; it probably reached English via the Baltic trade routes (cognates in Old Norse silki (> Danish silke, Swedish silke (“silk”)), Russian шёлк (šolk), obsolete Lithuanian zilkai̇̃), all ultimately from Late Latin sēricus, from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós), ultimately from an Oriental language (represented now by e.g. Chinese 絲 /丝 (sī, “silk”)). Displaced Old English sīde (“silk”). Compare Seres. Doublet of seric and serge.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).