Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

billiken

/ˈbɪ.lɪ.kən/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.12 in modern English

Syllables: bil-liken
IPA: /ˈbɪ.lɪ.kən/

14

Scrabble Score

8

Letters

2

Syllables

6

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

Alternative form of Billiken.

noun

A rotund charm doll originally patented in 1908 by American art teacher and illustrator, Florence Pretz of Kansas City, Missouri, and representing "the God of Things as They Ought to Be".

Example Sentences

"Other experiments have been made with the billiken but none so successful as the milliken. One is the rarely seen "billiken in a barrel," a male billiken with movable genitals. Carvers occasionally have attempted to portray billikens in different positions or in action, for example, "Spike" Milligrock's billiken bowing in a Japanese-like posture, which had little success."
"Happy Jack made his first ivory billiken in 1909, the commercial ones were at the height of their success — having taken the country by storm — but by 1912 they had plunged to oblivion."
"Florence Pretz of Kansas City patented the billiken in 1908."

Etymology

Coined by Florence Pretz. It is believed that Pretz found the name Billiken in Bliss Carman's 1896 poem Mr. Moon: A Song Of The Little People.

Inflected Forms

billikens (plural) billikin (alternative)

Questions

How do you pronounce billiken?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˈbɪ.lɪ.kən/.
What does billiken mean?: Alternative form of Billiken.
Where does billiken come from?: Coined by Florence Pretz. It is believed that Pretz found the name Billiken in Bliss Carman's 1896 poem Mr. Moon: A Song Of The Little People.

How to pronounce billiken

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “billiken”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈbɪ.lɪ.kən/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
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