Slovak

How to spell slovak

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce slovak

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does slovak mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to Slovakia, its people, or their language.
2. nounA person from Slovakia, or the West Slavic language spoken there.

Slovak in a sentence

• adjective

  The museum displayed traditional slovak pottery and embroidery.

• noun

  As a proud slovak, he kept his grandmother's folk songs alive.

• adjective

  She studied slovak grammar before moving to Bratislava for work.

• noun

  The menu was printed in both slovak and English for tourists.

Where does slovak come from?

Language of origin: Other

This word comes from the native name Slovak (in the language itself, Slovak), the term the people of Slovakia use for themselves. It belongs to the wider family of Slavic self-designations built on the root slovo, meaning 'word' or 'speech', so that a Slav was traditionally understood as one of 'the people who speak intelligibly', in contrast to neighbours whose speech was not understood. The same root underlies the broader term Slav and appears in the names of related peoples and languages across Central and Eastern Europe. English adopted the word in the nineteenth century as contact with the Austro-Hungarian lands grew, using it both for the people and for their West Slavic language. The spelling trap for English writers is the ending: it is -ak rather than the more familiar -ack, and it carries no silent letters.

How the word is built

• slov- (from the Slavic root meaning 'word' or 'speech', also the source of 'Slav')
• -ak (noun suffix denoting a person)