lake
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lake¹
- /leɪk/ US, UK
- /læɪk/ Australia, New Zealand
- /lek/ Scotland
- /leːk/ Wales
Rhymes with -eɪk
Where it comes from
* Middle English lake (“small stream of running water, pool, lake”), from Old English lacu (“stream, pool, pond, lake”), from Proto-West Germanic *laku, from Proto-Germanic *lakō (“stream, pool, body of water", originally "a place where water runs off and collects”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leg- (“to leak, drain”); with
* Middle English lac (“lake”), from Old French lac (“lake, ditch, pit”), a borrowed term, likely from Latin lacus (“lake, tub, vat”) (see Old French lac for more).
The first element is related to Dutch laak (“stream, drainage ditch, pond”), German Low German Lake, Laak (“drainage, marshland”), German Lache (“puddle, pool”), Norwegian løk (“a deep, slow-moving stream; a widening in a stream or river”), Faroese løkur (“small brook”) and lækja (“water hole, well, watershoot in a brook”), Icelandic lækur (“stream”).
Despite their similarity in form and meaning, Old English lacu is not related to English lay (“lake”), Latin lacus (“hollow, lake, pond”), Scottish Gaelic loch (“lake”), Ancient Greek λάκκος (lákkos, “waterhole, tank, pond, pit”), all from Proto-Indo-European *lókus, *l̥kwés (“lake, pool”).
noun lakes
- A large, landlocked stretch of water or similar liquid. Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.
-
A large amount of liquid.
a lake of wine
Similar: mountain
- A small stream of running water; a channel for water; a drain.
- A pit, or ditch.
lake²
- /leɪk/ US, UK
- /læɪk/ Australia, New Zealand
- /lek/ Scotland
- /leːk/ Wales
Rhymes with -eɪk
Where it comes from
From Northern Middle English lake, lak, lac (also laik, layke; Southern loke), from Old English lāc (“play, sport, strife, battle, sacrifice, offering, gift, present, booty, message”), from Proto-West Germanic *laik, from Proto-Germanic *laikaz (“game, dance, hymn, sport”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyg- (“to bounce, shake, tremble”). Cognate with Old High German leih (“song, melody, music”), Old Norse leikr (whence Danish leg (“game”), Swedish leka (“to play”)), and Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌹𐌺𐍃 (laiks, “dance”). Doublet of lek.
Verb form partly from Middle English laken, from Old English lacan, from Proto-Germanic *laikaną, from Proto-Indo-European *leyg-. More at lay, -lock.
verb lakes · laking · laked · laik
- To present an offering.
- To leap, jump, exert oneself; to play. The agent was of course the Boggart, and it soon became their sport (which they called laking with Boggart) to put the shoe-horn into the hole and have it shot back at them.
- To subject biological cells to repeated cycles of freezing and thawing until lysis.
lake³
- /leɪk/ US, UK
- /læɪk/ Australia, New Zealand
- /lek/ Scotland
- /leːk/ Wales
Rhymes with -eɪk
Where it comes from
From Middle English lake, from Old English *lacen or Middle Dutch laken; both from Proto-Germanic *lakaną (“linen; cloth; sheet”). Cognate with Dutch lake (“linen”), Dutch laken (“linen; bedsheet”), German Laken, Danish lagan, Swedish lakan, Icelandic lak, lakan.
lake⁴
- /leɪk/ US, UK
- /læɪk/ Australia, New Zealand
- /lek/ Scotland
- /leːk/ Wales
Rhymes with -eɪk
Where it comes from
From French laque (“lacquer”), from Persian لاک (lâk), from Hindi लाख (lākh), from Sanskrit लाक्षा (lākṣā). Doublet of lac and lacquer.
noun lakes
-
In dyeing and painting, an often fugitive crimson or vermilion pigment derived from an organic colorant (cochineal or madder, for example) and an inorganic, generally metallic mordant.
The colour scheme of the North British Railway—dark gamboge for the engines and lake for the coaches—looked very smart when new and clean, but these shades did not possess good wearing qualities.
Similar: lac
- In the composition of colors for use in products intended for human consumption, made by extending on a substratum of alumina, a salt prepared from one of the certified water-soluble straight colors. The name of a lake prepared by extending the aluminum salt prepared from FD&C Blue No. 1 upon the substratum would be FD&C Blue No. 1--Aluminum Lake.
verb lakes · laking · laked
- To make lake-red.
Lake⁵
Where it comes from
Derived from the noun lake.
proper noun Lakes
- A surname.
- A unisex given name. Lake Bell, Lake Chambers Speed
- A large village and civil parish on the Isle of Wight (OS grid ref SZ5983).
- A settlement in Wilsford cum Lake parish, Wiltshire (OS grid ref SU1339).
- An unincorporated community in Fremont County, Idaho.
- An unincorporated community in Laurel County, Kentucky.
- An unincorporated community in Ascension Parish, Louisiana.
- An unincorporated community in Baltimore County, Maryland.
- An unincorporated community in Garfield Township, Clare County, Michigan.
- A town in Newton County and Scott County, Mississippi.
- An unincorporated community in Tulsa County, Oklahoma.
- An unincorporated community in Northumberland County, Virginia.
- An unincorporated community in Logan County, West Virginia.
- A town in Marinette County, Wisconsin.
- A former town in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, annexed by the city of Milwaukee in 1954.
- A town in Price County, Wisconsin.
- A number of townships, listed under Lake Township.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: lagoon, river, creek, pond, lakeshore, sea, lacustrine, pool, water, basin, grise, grey, yellow, tam, reservoir, amr
Translations
Every language
Talk about this word "lake." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/lake. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. lake. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/lake "lake." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/lake.Cite this
@misc{lake_2026,
title = {lake},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/lake},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
