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anvil

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anvil

  • /ˈæn.vəl/ US
  • /ˈæn.vɪl/ US
  • /ˈæn.vɪl/ UK

Where it comes from

From Middle English anfilt, anvelt, anfelt, from late Old English anfilt, anfilte, anfealt, from earlier onfilti (“anvil”), from Proto-West Germanic *anafalt (compare Middle Dutch anvilte, Low German Anfilts, Anefilt, Old High German anafalz), compound of *ana (“on”) + *falt (“beaten”) (compare German falzen (“to groove, fold, welt”), Swedish dialectal filta (“to beat”)), from Proto-Indo-European *pelh₂-t- (“shaken, beaten”) (compare Middle Irish lethar (“leather”), Latin pellō (“to beat, strike”), Ancient Greek πάλλω (pállō, “to toss, brandish”)), enlargement of Proto-Indo-European *pelh₂- (“to stir, move”). More at felon.

noun anvils

  1. A heavy iron block used in the blacksmithing trade as a surface upon which metal can be struck and shaped. My heart is as an anvil unto sorrow, Which beats upon it like the Cyclops’ hammers […]
  2. The incus bone in the middle ear.
  3. A stone or other hard surface used by a bird for breaking the shells of snails.
  4. The non-moving surface of a micrometer against which the item to be measured is placed.
  5. A horizontal-topped mass of cloud, shaped like a blacksmith's anvil, that forms before a thunderstorm.

Similar: stithy

verb anvils · anviling · anvilling · anviled · anvilled

  1. figuratively, often, transitive To fashion on, or as if on, an anvil. I Have anvil’d out this Iron Age, Which I commit, not to your patronage, But skill and Art […]

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: incus, stithy, wall, ton, set tool, trip hammer, ancony, forge-hammer, flatter, forge, fuller, swage block, blacksmithery, swage, hardy, file

noun

Similar: stithy

Translations

Every language

noun block used in blacksmithing

Españolyunque, bigornia, tas
한국어모루 moru
日本語金床 kanatoko
中文鐵砧 /铁砧 tiězhēn
हिन्दीनिहाई nihāī
Kiswahilifuawe
Portuguêsbigorna
Françaisenclume
DeutschAmboss
Italianoincudine
Ελληνικάαμόνι amóni
Românănicovală, ilău
Русскийнакова́льня nakoválʹnja
Tiếng Việt(cái) đe
العربيةسَنْدان sandān, سِنْدَان sindān, عَلَاة ʕalāh
עבריתסַדָּן sadán

noun bone in inner ear

Españolyunque
日本語砧骨 kinutakotsu
中文砧骨 zhēngǔ
Portuguêsbigorna
Françaisenclume, incus
DeutschAmboss
Italianoincudine
Ελληνικάαμόνι amóni, άκμονας ákmonas
Românănicovală
Русскийнакова́льня nakoválʹnja
Tiếng Việtxương đe

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Cite this
MLA

"anvil." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/anvil. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

anvil. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/anvil

Chicago

"anvil." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/anvil.

BibTeX
@misc{anvil_2026,
  title = {anvil},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/anvil},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}