Biker

How to spell biker

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce biker

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does biker mean?

1. nounA person who rides a motorcycle or bicycle, often as a hobby or way of life.

Biker in a sentence

• A tired biker pulled into the service station for fuel and coffee.

• The local biker raised money for charity with a weekend ride.

Where does biker come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is a thoroughly modern word built from informal English. The base, 'bike', appeared in the late nineteenth century as a clipped, everyday shortening of 'bicycle', a word coined around the 1860s from the Latin prefix 'bi-' meaning 'two' joined to the Greek 'kuklos' meaning 'circle' or 'wheel', so the literal sense is 'two wheels'. The agent ending '-er', inherited from Old English and used to mean 'a person who does or uses something', was then attached to give 'biker', recorded from the early twentieth century. Although it began by describing cyclists, the word swung firmly toward motorcyclists during the mid twentieth century, especially as motorcycle clubs grew in popularity. The spelling is reassuringly regular: it simply keeps the silent 'e' of 'bike' before adding '-r', which is the only small point a writer might second-guess.

How the word is built

• bike (shortened from bicycle)
• -er (agent suffix: one who does)