dike

C2+ Topic:Space, Position & Direction

US /daɪk/ UK /daɪk/ See IPA manual

Homophones

Meanings

1

noun
an embankment built to hold back water and prevent flooding

Villagers reinforced the dike before the river crested.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · an embankment built to hold... embankment levee dyke barrier bankseawall

Word family

Related forms dyke ditch

Etymology

From Middle English dike, dik ('ditch, embankment'), from Old English dīc ('ditch, dike'), of Germanic origin; the same root yields both 'ditch' (the cut) and 'dike' (the bank thrown up).

dīc Old English *dīkaz Proto-Germanic *dʰeyǵʷ- Proto-Indo-European

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Space, Position & Direction

External links

# dike

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /daɪk/
**IPA (UK):** /daɪk/

## Meanings
1. an embankment built to hold back water and prevent flooding

## Examples
- Villagers reinforced the dike before the river crested.

## Synonyms
- embankment
- levee
- dyke
- barrier
- bank
- seawall

## Related Forms
- dyke
- ditch

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: dīc
- Root: *dīkaz
- Root: *dʰeyǵʷ-

## Etymology
From Middle English dike, dik ('ditch, embankment'), from Old English dīc ('ditch, dike'), of Germanic origin; the same root yields both 'ditch' (the cut) and 'dike' (the bank thrown up).

## AI Etymology
Dike is from Middle English dike, dik ('ditch, embankment'), from Old English dīc ('ditch, dike'), of Germanic origin; the same root yields both 'ditch' (the cut) and 'dike' (the bank thrown up). Important recorded forms include dīc (Old English), *dīkaz (Proto-Germanic), and *dʰeyǵʷ- (Proto-Indo-European). The current sense covers an embankment built to hold back water and prevent flooding. The wider family includes related words such as dyke and ditch.

## Topics
- Space, Position & Direction

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