LANKY
What does "LANKY" mean?
Awkwardly tall and thin.
Meanings
- Ungracefully tall and lean, with long thin limbs. The lanky teenager had to duck through every doorway.
Did you know?
- 'Lanky' grew out of the older word 'lank', which in Old English ('hlanc') meant loose or empty rather than tall - the slackness came first, and the 'awkwardly tall and thin' sense only arrived around 1818.
Word origin
From 'lank' (thin, drooping, lean), from Old English 'hlanc' (loose, slender), plus the suffix '-y'; the 'awkwardly tall and thin' sense of 'lanky' is recorded from the early 19th century.
Remember it
LANKY is 'lank' + Y; picture a tall thin Y-shape, all long arms and loose joints.
A little poem
All elbows and knees-
the boy folds into a chair
like a closing tent.
haiku
Wordplay
- Why was the lanky scarecrow promoted? He was outstanding in his field and long overdue.
What it teaches
Awkward length often just means you have not yet grown into the room you take up.
Quick facts
What does LANKY mean?
Awkwardly tall and thin.
Is LANKY a valid word?
Yes — LANKY is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is LANKY?
LANKY has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does LANKY come from?
From 'lank' (thin, drooping, lean), from Old English 'hlanc' (loose, slender), plus the suffix '-y'; the 'awkwardly tall and thin' sense of 'lanky' is recorded from the early 19th century.
What can LANKY teach us?
Awkward length often just means you have not yet grown into the room you take up.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.