Kink

How to spell kink

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce kink

What does kink mean?

1. nounA sharp twist, curl, or bend in something long and flexible, such as a hose, cable, or rope.
2. nounA small problem, hitch, or imperfection in a plan, system, or process that still needs sorting out.

Kink in a sentence

• A kink in the garden hose stopped the water completely.

• The team spent the morning ironing out every kink in the new booking system.

• She straightened the kink in the charging cable before plugging it in.

• There is still one kink in the schedule that we need to resolve before launch.

Where does kink come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

Kink came into English in the late 1600s from Dutch, where 'kink' described a short twist or curl in a rope or cable. It was first a sailor's word, since a kink in a tightly coiled line could jam a pulley or weaken the rope, so the term spread through seafaring English before it ever reached dry land. From that very physical sense of a sudden tight bend it broadened to mean any twist or curl, and then figuratively to a small flaw or hitch in a plan or machine that needs to be 'worked out'. By the twentieth century it had also picked up the sense of a peculiarity of character or, more loosely, an unusual taste. The spelling stays close to the original Dutch and is mercifully regular, with the silent-feeling 'n' before the hard 'k' echoing words like 'link' and 'sink'.

How the word is built

• kink (a single root meaning a twist or bend); no prefix or suffix, a one-piece word from Dutch