stilted

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /ˈstɪltɪd/ UK /ˈstɪltɪd/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adj
stiff and unnatural, especially in style or manner

Their stilted conversation made the dinner feel awkward.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · stiff and unnatural,... stiff unnatural forced wooden formallabouredconstrained artificial

Opposites

natural fluent relaxed spontaneous easy

Word family

Derived forms stiltedlystiltedness

Related forms stilt

Simplified etymology

Stilted first meant “having stilts,” from the medieval word stilt, which is of Germanic origin and probably had the underlying sense “walk stiffly.” Its use for language meaning “unnaturally elevated” is recorded in a letter by Byron from 1820.

Etymology

From 'stilt' (a pole used to raise a walker, Middle English 'stilte', of Germanic origin) plus '-ed'; the figurative sense 'stiffly formal' derives from the elevated, ungainly gait of walking on stilts.

stilte Middle English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# stilted

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

## Meanings
1. stiff and unnatural, especially in style or manner

## Examples
- Their stilted conversation made the dinner feel awkward.

## Synonyms
- stiff
- unnatural
- forced
- wooden
- formal
- laboured
- constrained
- artificial

## Antonyms
- natural
- fluent
- relaxed
- spontaneous
- easy

## Derived Forms
- stiltedly
- stiltedness

## Related Forms
- stilt

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: stilte

## Etymology
From 'stilt' (a pole used to raise a walker, Middle English 'stilte', of Germanic origin) plus '-ed'; the figurative sense 'stiffly formal' derives from the elevated, ungainly gait of walking on stilts.

## AI Etymology
Stilted comes from 'stilt' (a pole used to raise a walker, Middle English 'stilte', of Germanic origin) plus '-ed'; the figurative sense 'stiffly formal' derives from the elevated, ungainly gait of walking on stilts. The historical chain includes Middle English stilte. The quoted older senses, "stilt", "stilte", "-ed", and "stiffly formal", supply the semantic anchors for stilted. The formation is best read as borrowed: the word stilted carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a adj, "stiff and unnatural, especially in style or manner". English derivatives include stiltedly and stiltedness; related English forms include stilt. The result is a adj whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Word Formation & Derivatives

markdown