Dip

How to spell dip

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce dip

What does dip mean?

1. verbTo lower something briefly into a liquid and then take it out again.
2. nounA temporary fall or downward movement in a level, amount, or surface.
3. nounA thick savoury mixture into which food such as crisps or vegetables is dipped.

Dip in a sentence

• verb

  She liked to dip her toast into the soft yolk of the egg.

• noun

  There was a sharp dip in sales during the quiet summer months.

• noun

  She served a creamy garlic dip with the warm bread.

• verb

  Please dip the brush in the paint before you start the trim.

• noun

  The car slowed for a sudden dip in the road.

• noun

  The party table held crackers, carrot sticks, and a spicy dip.

Where does dip come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a thoroughly native English word, descending from the Old English verb dyppan, meaning 'to immerse' or 'to plunge briefly into a liquid'. That verb belonged to a wider Germanic family that also gave us 'deep' and 'deepen', all built on a shared root that carried the idea of going down into something. Over the centuries the spelling settled into its short, blunt modern form, and the word stayed close to its literal sense of lowering something into liquid. From the basic action it branched out into figurative and physical extensions, such as a 'dip' in a road or a 'dip' in prices, and later, in the kitchen, the savoury mixture you dip food into. Because the word is so short and phonetically regular, the only spelling point worth remembering is the doubled consonant when you add endings, as in 'dipped' and 'dipping'.

How the word is built

• dip (single Old English root, no affixes)