Ilk

//ɪlk// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A type, race or category; a group of entities that have common characteristics such that they may be grouped together.

    ""Hinkydink” or “Bathhouse John,” or others of that ilk, were proprietors of the most notorious dives in Chicago[…]"

  2. 2
    a kind of person wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Very; same. Northern-England, Scotland, not-comparable

    "By semblaunt, was that ilke image"

Synonyms

All synonyms
kindsorttypebloodbody buildbody-build

Example

More examples

"People of your ilk are not welcome in this establishment."

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English ilke, from Old English ilca, conjectured as from Proto-Germanic *ilīkaz, a compound of *iz and *-līkaz from the noun *līką (“body”). The sense of “type”, “kind” is from the application of the phrase of that ilk to families: the word thus came to mean family.

Related phrases

of that ilk

More for "ilk"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.