Walk

/wɔːk/ name, noun, verb, slang

name, noun, verb, slang ·Top 500 ·Elementary level

Meaning at a glance

  • Primary sense: A trip made by walking.
  • Grammar: walk is listed as name, noun, verb, slang.
  • Nearest alternatives: accompany, agora, air lane, air race.
  • Useful contrasts: natural process cycle, most running, abandon.
  • Usage evidence: I can walk to school in 10 minutes.

How to use "walk"

  1. Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
  2. Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "walk" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
  3. 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 "walk" 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 "walk" as the right word for your sentence.

If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "walk" 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 "walk" is acting as 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 "accompany" 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 "walk", 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. 1
    A trip made by walking.

    "I take a walk every morning."

  2. 2
    A particular histidine kinase uncountable
  3. 3
    (baseball) an advance to first base by a batter who receives four balls wordnet
  4. 4
    A distance walked.

    "It’s a long walk from my house to the library."

  5. 5
    the act of traveling by foot wordnet
Show 18 more definitions
  1. 6
    An Olympic Games track event requiring that the heel of the leading foot touch the ground before the toe of the trailing foot leaves the ground.
  2. 7
    the act of walking somewhere wordnet
  3. 8
    A manner of walking; a person's style of walking.

    "The Ministry of Silly Walks is underfunded this year."

  4. 9
    a slow gait of a horse in which two feet are always on the ground wordnet
  5. 10
    A path, sidewalk/pavement or other maintained place on which to walk.

    "And then it appeared to the young man that he was walking his love up the grass walk of Heriotside, with the house close by him."

  6. 11
    careers in general wordnet
  7. 12
    A person's conduct or course in life. figuratively

    "Men like Stuart who had no desire to extol Coleridge's virtues, and other witnesses quite as hostile, to whom a moral dereliction could hardly be a mortal offence, were loud in praise of the purity of his walk in life."

  8. 13
    a path set aside for walking wordnet
  9. 14
    A situation where all players fold to the big blind, as their first action (instead of calling or raising), once they get their cards.
  10. 15
    manner of walking wordnet
  11. 16
    An award of first base to a batter following four balls being thrown by the pitcher; known in the rules as a "base on balls".

    "The pitcher now has two walks in this inning alone."

  12. 17
    In coffee, coconut, and other plantations, the space between them.
  13. 18
    An area of an estate planted with fruit-bearing trees. Belize, Caribbean, Guyana, Jamaica

    "Twenty Acres of Land well kept in a Plantain Walk, will afford a very considerable Support, as Plantains are as hearty a Food as Eddoes, and the Plantain Walk may be a Nursery for declining Slaves, as well as to fatten old Cattle when they are past Labour."

  14. 19
    A place for keeping and training puppies for dogfighting. historical
  15. 20
    An enclosed area in which a gamecock is confined to prepare him for fighting. historical
  16. 21
    A sequence of alternating vertices and edges, where each edge's endpoints are the preceding and following vertices in the sequence. Compare path, trail.
  17. 22
    Something very easily accomplished; a walk in the park. colloquial

    "And for the strongroom itself, he can tell us where to find the combination of the day. We had allowed four hours, Joe, but with this help, once you get us inside, it's a walk! I've been timing it."

  18. 23
    A cheque drawn on a bank that was not a member of the London Clearing and whose sort code was allocated on a one-off basis; they had to be "walked" (hand-delivered by messengers). UK, dated, slang
Verb
  1. 1
    To move on the feet by alternately setting each foot (or pair or group of feet, in the case of animals with four or more feet) forward, with at least one foot on the ground at all times. Compare run. intransitive

    "To walk briskly for an hour every day is to keep fit."

  2. 2
    obtain a base on balls wordnet
  3. 3
    To "walk free", i.e. to win, or avoid, a criminal court case, particularly when actually guilty. colloquial, intransitive

    "If you can’t present a better case, that robber is going to walk."

  4. 4
    give a base on balls to wordnet
  5. 5
    Of an object, to go missing or be stolen. colloquial, euphemistic, intransitive

    "If you leave your wallet lying around, it’s going to walk."

Show 27 more definitions
  1. 6
    take a walk; go for a walk; walk for pleasure wordnet
  2. 7
    To walk off the field, as if given out, after the fielding side appeals and before the umpire has ruled; done as a matter of sportsmanship when the batsman believes he is out. intransitive
  3. 8
    use one's feet to advance; advance by steps wordnet
  4. 9
    To travel (a distance) by walking. transitive

    "I walk two miles to school every day."

  5. 10
    make walk wordnet
  6. 11
    To take for a walk or accompany on a walk. transitive

    "I walk the dog every morning."

  7. 12
    accompany or escort wordnet
  8. 13
    To allow a batter to reach base by pitching four balls. transitive
  9. 14
    traverse or cover by walking wordnet
  10. 15
    To reach base by being pitched four balls. intransitive
  11. 16
    walk at a pace wordnet
  12. 17
    Of an object or machine, to move by shifting between two positions, as if it were walking. intransitive

    "If we don't bolt the washing machine down, it's going to walk across the room."

  13. 18
    be or act in association with wordnet
  14. 19
    To cause something to move in such a way. transitive

    "I carefully walked the ladder along the wall."

  15. 20
    live or behave in a specified manner wordnet
  16. 21
    To full; to beat (cloth) to give it the consistency of felt. transitive
  17. 22
    To traverse by walking (or analogous gradual movement). transitive

    "I walked the streets aimlessly."

  18. 23
    To operate the left and right throttles of (an aircraft) in alternation. transitive

    "Still keeping his tail in the air, Red coaxed the “Airknocker” ahead and as we grasped his struts he slowly retarded the throttle. We walked the plane between two tiedown blocks and not until we had tied the struts did Red cut the switch."

  19. 24
    To leave, resign. colloquial, intransitive

    "If we don't offer him more money he'll walk."

  20. 25
    To push (a vehicle) alongside oneself as one walks. transitive

    "The county had a successful defense only because the judge kept telling the jury at every chance that the cyclist should have walked his bicycle like a pedestrian."

  21. 26
    To behave; to pursue a course of life; to conduct oneself. intransitive

    "We walk perversely with God, and he will walk crookedly toward us."

  22. 27
    To go restlessly about; said of things or persons expected to remain quiet, such as a sleeping person, or the spirit of a dead person. intransitive

    "October 9, 1550, Hugh Latimer, sermon preached at Stamford, link I heard a pen walking in the chimney behind the cloth."

  23. 28
    To be in motion; to act; to move. obsolete

    "her toung did walke / In fowle reproch."

  24. 29
    To put, keep, or train (a puppy) in a walk, or training area for dogfighting. historical, transitive
  25. 30
    To move (a guest) to another hotel if their confirmed reservation is not available on the day of check-in. informal, transitive
  26. 31
    To tend to move radially while feeding axially, whether tending toward on-center or tending toward off-center. Walking may be desirable (e.g., when a reamer walks into concentricity) or undesirable (e.g., when a twist drill walks into eccentricity.) intransitive
  27. 32
    To pull (a trigger) rapid-fire by alternating two fingers.
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.

Synonyms

All synonyms
accompanyagoraair laneair raceairingalameda

Antonyms

natural process cyclemost runningabandonbicycle

Example

"I can walk to school in 10 minutes."

Common questions

What does "walk" mean?

A trip made by walking.

What is a synonym for "walk"?

Common synonyms include: accompany, agora, air lane, air race, airing, alameda.

How do you use "walk" in a sentence?

I can walk to school in 10 minutes.

How do you pronounce "walk"?

Pronounced /wɔːk/.

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English walken (“to move, walk, roll, turn, revolve, toss”), a conflation of Old English wealcan (“to move round, revolve, roll, turn, toss”) (ġewealcan (“to go, traverse”)) and Old English wealcian (“to curl, roll up”); both from Proto-West Germanic *walkan, from Proto-Germanic *walkaną, *walkōną (“to twist, turn, roll about, full”), from Proto-Indo-European *walg- (“to twist, turn, move”). Cognate with Scots walk (“to walk”), Saterland Frisian walkje (“to full; drum; flex; mill”), West Frisian swalkje (“to wander, roam”), Dutch walken (“to full, work hair or felt”), Dutch zwalken (“to wander about”), German walken (“to flex, full, mill, drum”), Danish valke (“to waulk, full”), Latin valgus (“bandy-legged, bow-legged”), Sanskrit वल्गति (válgati, “amble, bound, leap, dance”). More at vagrant and whelk. Doublet of waulk.

Etymology 2

From Middle English walk, walke, walc, from Old English *wealc (as in Old English wealcspinl) and ġewealc (“a rolling motion, attack”), from Proto-Germanic *walką. Cognate with Icelandic válk (“a rolling around, a tossing to and fro, trouble, distress”).

Etymology 3

* As a German surname, variant of Walke. * As an English surname, from the noun and verb walk.

More for "walk"

Synonyms

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