Slap
verbTo strike someone or something sharply with the open hand or a flat object.
How to spell slap
4 letters · 1 syllable
How to pronounce slap
What does slap mean?
- verbTo strike someone or something sharply with the open hand or a flat object.
- nounA sharp blow given with the open hand or a flat object.
Slap in a sentence
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verb
She was so startled that she nearly tried to slap the wasp away.
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noun
The comment felt like a slap to her professional pride.
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verb
He likes to slap butter onto the bread in one quick motion.
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noun
He gave the side of the van a friendly slap before driving off.
Where does slap come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
The word slap is imitative in origin, meaning it was coined to mimic the sound of a flat, open hand striking a surface. It appears in English from around the 1600s and has close cousins in Low German and Dutch, where similar sound-imitating words like 'slapp' described the same sharp smack. Words of this kind, called echoic or onomatopoeic, were never built from older roots but simply invented to match the noise they describe, much like 'clap', 'flap', and 'snap'. Over time slap broadened from the literal blow to figurative uses such as a 'slap in the face' for an insult, and even to an adverbial sense meaning 'directly' or 'abruptly', as in walking slap into a wall. Its short, blunt spelling fits the abrupt action it names, and it gives few problems to spell.
How the word is built
- slap (imitative root suggesting a sharp flat blow)
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