ditch

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /dɪtʃ/ UK /dɪtʃ/ See IPA manual

Minimal pairs

Sounds like dish /tʃ/ vs /ʃ/ Sounds like diss /tʃ/ vs /s/

noun verb

Meanings

1

noun
a narrow channel dug to hold or carry water; to discard

Rainwater drained quickly into the ditch beside the road.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a narrow channel dug to... trench channel gully moat drain furrow

Word family

Forms ditcher

Derived forms ditcherditching

Related forms dike dyke

Etymology

From Old English dīc ('ditch, dike, moat'), from Proto-Germanic *dīkaz; a doublet of dike, both originally referring to the trench and the bank thrown up from it.

dīc Old English *dīkaz Proto-Germanic

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Topics

Describing Qualities

# ditch

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun, verb
**IPA (US):** dɪtʃ
**IPA (UK):** dɪtʃ

## Meanings
1. a narrow channel dug to hold or carry water; to discard

## Examples
- Rainwater drained quickly into the ditch beside the road.

## Synonyms
- trench
- channel
- gully
- moat
- drain
- furrow

## Derived Forms
- ditcher
- ditching

## Related Forms
- dike
- dyke

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

## Etymology
From Old English dīc ('ditch, dike, moat'), from Proto-Germanic *dīkaz; a doublet of dike, both originally referring to the trench and the bank thrown up from it.

## AI Etymology
Ditch is from Old English dīc ('ditch, dike, moat'), from Proto-Germanic *dīkaz; a doublet of dike, both originally referring to the trench and the bank thrown up from it. The ancestry passes through Old English dīc and Proto-Germanic *dīkaz. In present use as noun and verb, it means "a narrow channel dug to hold or carry water; to discard", keeping the historical formation close to the word's ordinary semantic work. Related words include dike and dyke; derived forms include ditcher and ditching. The surrounding word family keeps the same base visible in ditcher, ditching, dike, and dyke, showing how the headword belongs to a larger cluster rather than standing alone.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities

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