wrinkle
/ˈɹɪŋkl̩/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.12 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A fault, imperfection or bug especially in a new system or product; typically, they will need to be ironed out.
Example Sentences
- "Spending time out in the sun may cause you to develop wrinkles sooner."
- "We need to iron out the wrinkles in the plan before implementing it."
- "We've added a couple of new wrinkles to the policy."
- "There were now a grab bag of southern country-rock units with a new wrinkle—Black Oak Arkansas, for one, combined psychedelia, fifties rock, Hindu spiritualism, and gospel into “psycho-boogie,” or “raunch 'n' roll.”"
- "Be careful not to wrinkle your dress before we arrive."
- "her wrinkled form in black and white array'd"
Etymology
From Middle English wrinkle, wrynkel (“crease, fold, wrinkle”), from the verb (see below). Cognate with Dutch wrinkel (“wrinkle, crease”). Compare also Middle English runkel (“wrinkle”), from Old Norse hrukka (“wrinkle”), from Proto-Germanic *hrunkwǭ (“wrinkle, crease”), whence also French fronce (“crooked smile, scowl, frown”), German Runzel (“wrinkle”), Danish rynke (“wrinkle”), Swedish rynka and rynkla (“wrinkle”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: wrinkle, wrynklen, *wrinclian
Usage
Inflected Forms
wrinkles (plural)
wrincle (alternative, obsolete)
wrinkles (present, singular)
wrinkling (participle, present)
wrinkled (participle, past)
wrinkled (past)