Lock

How to spell lock

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce lock

What does lock mean?

1. nounA mechanical device that secures a door, container, or gate, usually opened with a key or combination.
2. verbTo fasten or secure something with a lock, or to become fixed in position.
3. nounA section of a canal or river enclosed by gates, used to raise or lower boats between different water levels.
4. nounA piece or curl of hair.

Lock in a sentence

• noun

  The front door lock jammed in the cold weather.

• verb

  Please lock the back gate before you leave for work.

• noun

  The narrowboat waited at the lock for the gates to open.

• noun

  She kept a lock of her son's hair in a small envelope.

• noun

  A tradesman replaced the broken lock on the office safe.

• verb

  The brakes can lock if you press the pedal too hard.

Where does lock come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is one of the oldest words in English, descending almost unchanged from the Old English noun 'loc', which meant a fastening, a bolt, or a barred enclosure. It belongs to a broad Germanic family, with relatives such as the German 'Loch' for a hole and 'Luke' for a hatch, all reaching back to a sense of closing something up or shutting it in. The mechanical device that secures a door grew naturally from this idea of barring and enclosing, and the verb 'to lock' followed close behind. The use for a stretch of canal between two gates, where boats are penned and the water level changed, also developed from the enclosure sense. A separate but identically spelled word, the Old English 'locc' for a tuft of hair, gave us the 'lock' of hair; the two converged in spelling but began life apart. Because the word is short and phonetically regular, the spelling has never been a serious trap.

How the word is built

• lock (single root, from Old English loc 'fastening, enclosure')

Words that sound like lock

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• loch: A lake or a narrow arm of the sea, especially in Scotland.