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PlainSpell

slick

/slɪk/adjective, noun, verb, adverb

slick is spelled S-L-I-C-K: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 5.1 times per million words in written English, the 11,015th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “sleek vs slick” about 110 times a month (Google, United States). As an adjective, slick means “Slippery or smooth due to a covering of liquid; often used to describe appearances” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in slick?

Letters5: S-L-I-C-K
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing5.1 times per million words; the 11,015th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search

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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How common is slick?

Slick appears 5.1 times per million words in written English, the 11,015th 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 slick?

  • /slɪk/

Slick 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-au-slick.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with slick

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

sleek vs slick110 G

Also written: sleek.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of slick

  • slicker comparative
  • slickest superlative
  • slicks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • slicking participle, present
  • slicked participle, past

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

What does slick mean?

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

adjective

  1. 1

    Slippery or smooth due to a covering of liquid; often used to describe appearances.

    This rain is making the roads slick.

  2. 2

    Sleek; smooth.

  3. 3

    Appearing expensive or sophisticated.

    They read all kinds of slick magazines.

  4. 4

    Superficially convincing but actually untrustworthy.

    That new sales rep is slick. Be sure to read the fine print before you buy anything.

  5. 5

    Clever, making an apparently hard task look easy.

    Our new process for extracting needles from haystacks is extremely slick.

  6. 6

    USExtraordinarily great or special.

    That is one slick bicycle: it has all sorts of features!

noun

  1. 1

    A covering of liquid, particularly oil.

    Careful in turn three – there's an oil slick on the road.

  2. 2

    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 by the explosion.

  3. 3

    Someone who is clever and untrustworthy.

  4. 4

    A tool used to make something smooth or even.

  5. 5

    A tire with a smooth surface instead of a tread pattern, often used in auto racing.

    You'll go much faster if you put on slicks.

  6. 6

    USslangA helicopter.

  7. 7

    A camera-ready image to be used by a printer. The "slick" is photographed to produce a negative image which is then used to burn a positive offset plate or other printing device.

    The project was delayed because the slick had not been delivered to the printer.

  8. 8

    slangA glossy magazine.

  9. 9

    Alternative form of schlich.

verb

  1. 1

    To make slick.

    The surface had been slicked.

adverb

  1. 1

    colloquialAlternative form of sleek (“with ease and dexterity”).

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

Slick in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchglissant (slippery due to a covering of liquid), nappe (covering of liquid, particularly oil), pneu lisse (tire with a smooth surface instead of a tread…)
Germanglitschig (slippery due to a covering of liquid), Schlick, Ölschlick (covering of liquid, particularly oil), gekonnt (appearing expensive or sophisticated), schlau (superficially convincing but actually…), raffiniert ((US West Coast slang) extraordinarily great or…)
Spanishresbaladizo (slippery due to a covering of liquid), elegante, pulido, sofisticado (appearing expensive or sophisticated), liso, ingenioso pero insubstancial (superficially convincing but actually…)

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 slick come from?

From Middle English slicke, slike, slyke, from Old English slīc (“sleek, smooth; crafty, cunning, slick”), from Proto-Germanic *slīkaz (“sleek, smooth”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleyg-, *sleyǵ- (“to glide, smooth, spread”). Akin to Dutch sluik, dialectal Dutch sleek (“even, smooth”), Old Norse slíkr (“sleek, smooth”), Old English slician (“to make sleek, smooth, or glossy”).

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

What to look up after slick