Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

milky

/ˈmɪlki/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.50 in modern English

Syllables: milky
IPA: /ˈmɪlki/

14

Scrabble Score

5

Letters

2

Syllables

5

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Resembling milk in color, consistency, smell, etc.; consisting of milk.

adj

Of the black in an image, appearing as dark gray rather than black.

Informal

adj

Containing (an especially large amount of) milk.

adj

Containing a whitish liquid, juicy.

adj

Informal

adj

Immature, childish.

Informal

adj

Producing milk, lactating.

Obsolete

Example Sentences

"his sword, / Which was declining on the milky head / Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' the air to stick: […]"
"The Pails high-foaming with a milky Flood,"
"[S]ome Plants upon breaking their Vessels yield a milky Juice; others a Yellow of peculiar Tastes and Qualities."
"[T]he kind, slightly milky odour of cattle […]"
"She wheels her gaze from the wall on to me. The black irises are set off by milky whites as clear as a child’s."
"milky cocoa milky tea"

Etymology

From Middle English mylky, melky; from Old English *meolciġ, from Proto-West Germanic *melukig, from Proto-Germanic *melukigaz. Equivalent to milk + -y. Cognate with Saterland Frisian moalkig (“milky”), West Frisian molkich (“milky”), Dutch melkig (“milky”), German Low German melkig (“milky”), German milchig (“milky”), Danish mælkig (“milky”), Swedish mjölkig (“milky”), Icelandic mjólkugur (“milky”). Doublet of milchig.

Origin

Source language: Middle English

Word Breakdown

Root: mylky, *meolciġ, *melukig, *melukigaz
Suffix: milk

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /ˈmɪlki/
British English: /ˈmɪlki/

Usage

Inflected Forms

milkier (comparative) milkiest (superlative)

Derived Forms

milkily milkiness unmilky

Phrases

milky-dashel milky disease milky quartz milky sea milky spore milky stork Milky Way milky-white

Synonyms

lacteous lactiferous fearful nithing infantile puerile lactifluous nursing with milk

Rhymes With

silky wilkie gilkey wilkey silkie milkie

Questions

How do you pronounce milky?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˈmɪlki/.
What does milky mean?: Resembling milk in color, consistency, smell, etc.; consisting of milk.
Where does milky come from?: It is traced to Middle English.

How to pronounce milky

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “milky”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈmɪlki/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “milky”.
Repeat and practice — Say “milky” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.