Sticky

How to spell sticky

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sticky

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sticky mean?

1. adjectiveTending to stick to things or covered with a substance that adheres.
2. adjectiveAwkward, difficult, or hard to deal with (informal).

Sticky in a sentence

• The children left sticky fingerprints all over the glass door.

• The negotiations reached a sticky point over the final payment.

• The melted toffee made the kitchen counter sticky for days.

• Explaining the missed deadline to his manager was a sticky moment.

Where does sticky come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word comes from the verb 'stick', which traces back to the Old English stician, meaning 'to pierce, stab, or remain fixed in place'. That verb has deep Germanic roots and is related to words in Dutch and German for piercing and fastening. By the early 1700s, writers added the common adjective ending -y, which means roughly 'full of' or 'tending towards', to produce 'sticky' for anything that adheres or clings, the way pitch or glue holds fast. From the literal sense of physically clinging, English speakers soon stretched the word to describe awkward or hard-to-escape situations, much as one might feel stuck. The spelling is mercifully regular: the single c-k of 'stick' is simply kept and a -y is tacked on, with no doubling or silent letters to trip the writer.

How the word is built

• stick (from Old English stician: to pierce, adhere)
• -y (adjective suffix meaning 'characterised by')