Kilter

//ˈkɪltə// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Chiefly in out of kilter: (good) condition, form, or order; fettle. uncountable

    "not in kilter"

  2. 2
    A hand of playing cards which is useless.
  3. 3
    in working order wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
conditionfitnesskelterorderrepairshape

Example

More examples

"Ignoring feelings of tiredness knocks our body clocks out of kilter."

Etymology

Etymology 1

A variant of dialectal kelter (“good condition, order”), of unknown origin; possibly related to kilt (“to gather up (skirts) around the body”) (cognate with Danish kilte (“to tuck”)), or Scots kilt (“proper way of doing something, knack”) (probably from kilt (“a slope; a tilt”), possibly a variant of English tilt). In the 19th century, kelter was the more common form in the United Kingdom, while kilter was more common in the United States. Due to the influence of the latter, kilter is now the more prevalent form in all English varieties.

Etymology 2

Probably a variant of dialectal kelter (“odds and ends; litter, rubbish”); further etymology unknown.

Related phrases

off-kilterout of kilter

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