What does "smack" mean?
A distinct flavor, especially if slight.
Smack
/smæk/ adv, name, noun, verb, slang
adv, name, noun, verb, slang ·Top 500 ·Elementary level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A distinct flavor, especially if slight.
- Grammar: smack is listed as adv, name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: flavor, slap, smooch, tang.
- Useful contrasts: blandness, caress, hush.
- Usage evidence: Yesterday I was on my way home from work when I ran smack into my old girlfriend.
How to use "smack"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "smack" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "smack" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "smack" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "smack" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "smack" is acting as adv, name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "flavor" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "smack", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A distinct flavor, especially if slight. countable, uncountable
"rice pudding with a smack of cinnamon"
- 2 A small sailing vessel, commonly rigged as a sloop, used chiefly in the coasting and fishing trade and often called a fishing smack
"But without Union reinforcement, as many men as could be packed into a mere fishing smack could take the fort, Meigs wrote to Washington."
- 3 A sharp blow; a slap. See also: spank.
- 4 the act of smacking something; a blow delivered with an open hand wordnet
- 5 A slight trace of something; a smattering. countable, uncountable
"He was not sailorly, and yet he had a smack of the sea about him too."
Show 10 more definitions
- 6 A group of jellyfish. collective
- 7 The sound of a loud kiss.
"he took the bride about the neck. And kissed her lips with such a clamorous smack."
- 8 an enthusiastic kiss wordnet
- 9 Heroin. slang, uncountable
"Claude overdosed on smack in a Chicago flophouse three years later."
- 10 A quick, sharp noise, as of the lips when suddenly separated, or of a whip.
- 11 street names for heroin wordnet
- 12 A form of fried potato; a scallop. Northern-England, countable, uncountable
- 13 a sailing ship (usually rigged like a sloop or cutter) used in fishing and sailing along the coast wordnet
- 14 the taste experience when a savoury condiment is taken into the mouth wordnet
- 15 a blow from a flat object (as an open hand) wordnet
Verb
- 1 To get the flavor of. transitive
"He soon smacked the taste of physic hidden in this sweetness."
- 2 To slap or hit someone.
- 3 press (the lips) together and open (the lips) noisily, as in eating wordnet
- 4 To have a particular taste; used with of. intransitive
"1820-25, Charles Lamb, Essays of Elia He had his tea and hot rolls in a morning, while we were battening upon our quarter-of-a-penny loaf — our crug — moistened with attenuated small beer, in wooden piggings, smacking of the pitched leathern jack it was poured from."
- 5 To make a smacking sound.
"A horse neighed, and a whip smacked, there was a whistle, and the sound of a cart wheel."
Show 8 more definitions
- 6 deliver a hard blow to wordnet
- 7 To indicate or suggest something; used with of. intransitive
"Her reckless behavior smacks of pride."
- 8 To strike a child (usually on the buttocks) as a form of discipline. (normal U.S. and Canadian term spank)
- 9 kiss lightly wordnet
- 10 To wetly separate the lips, making a noise, after tasting something or in expectation of a treat.
"But when, obedient to the mode / Of panegyric, courtly ode / The bard bestrides, his annual hack, / In vain I taste, and sip and smack, / I find no flavour of the Sack."
- 11 have a distinctive or characteristic taste wordnet
- 12 To kiss with a close compression of the lips, so as to make a sound when they separate.
- 13 have an element suggestive (of something) wordnet
Adverb
- 1 As if with a smack or slap; smartly; sharply. not-comparable
"Right smack in the middle of getting ready to leave."
Adverb
- 1 directly wordnet
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname from German.
- 2 An Apache-based solution stack consisting of Spark, Mesos, Akka, Cassandra, and Kafka.
Example
"Yesterday I was on my way home from work when I ran smack into my old girlfriend."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "smack"?
Common synonyms include: flavor, slap, smooch, tang, abruptly, admixture.
How do you use "smack" in a sentence?
Yesterday I was on my way home from work when I ran smack into my old girlfriend.
How do you pronounce "smack"?
Pronounced /smæk/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
The noun is from Middle English smac, smak, smacke, from Old English smæc, smæċċ (“taste, smatch”), from Proto-West Germanic *smakku, from Proto-Germanic *smakkuz (“a taste”), from Proto-Indo-European *smegʰ-, *smeg- (“to taste”). The verb is from Middle English smaken. Cognate with English dialectal smatch, Scots smak (“scent, smell, taste, flavour”), Saterland Frisian Smoak (“taste”), West Frisian smaak (“taste”), Dutch smaak (“taste”), German Schmack, Geschmack (“taste”), Danish smag (“taste”), Swedish and Norwegian smak (“taste”), Norwegian smekke . Akin to Old English smæċċan (“to taste, smack”). More at smatch.
Etymology 2
From Middle Low German smack (Low German Schmacke, Schmaake (“small ship”)) or Dutch smak, perhaps ultimately related to smakken, imitative of the sails' noise.
Etymology 3
From Middle English *smakken, from Middle Dutch smacken (modern Dutch smakken (“to smack, pop, hurl down, crash”)), from Old Dutch *smakkon, from Proto-West Germanic *smak(k)ōn, ultimately of imitative origin. Cognate West Frisian smakke, Middle Low German smacken (“to hit, hurl, fling”), Plautdietsch schmaksen (“to smack the lips”), German schmatzen (“eat noisily”), regional German schmacken, Schmackes (“vigour”) (compare Swedish smak (“slap”), the first part of Saterland Frisian smakmuulje (“to smack, slap”)).
Etymology 4
Possibly an Americanized form of German Schmack.