ankle

English

Alternative forms

• ancle (obsolete)

Etymology

Old English ancle, anclow, ancleow; akin to Icelandic ökkla, ökli, Danish and Swedish ankel, Dutch enklaauw, enkel, German enkel, Old Norse akka, Old Frisian anckel, and perhaps Old High German encha, ancha (“thigh, shin”), from the Proto-Germanic *ankijōn (“ankle or hip”).

Compare with Sanskrit anga (“limb”), anguri finger. Compare with haunch.

Pronunciation

• audio (US)

  (file)

• IPA: /ˈeɪŋ.kəl/
• Rhymes: -eɪŋkəl

Noun

ankle (plural ankles)

1. The skeletal joint which connects the foot with the leg; the uppermost portion of the foot and lowermost portion of the leg, which contain this skeletal joint.

Derived terms

• ankle-biter
• ankle slapper
• show ankle

Translations

joint between foot and leg

Albanian: noçkë (sq) f. Arabic: كاحل (ar) (kāHil) m. Armenian: կոճ (hy) (koč̣), ճան (hy) (č̣an) Old Armenian: կոճ (koč), պճեղն (pčełn) Asturian: todiellu (ast) m. Bulgarian: глезен (bg) Catalan: turmell (ca) m. Chinese: Mandarin: (informal) 脚腕子 (cmn) (jiǎowànzi), 腿腕子 (cmn) (tuǐwànzi), (technical) 踝 (cmn) (huái), 腳腕子 (cmn), 腳踝 (zh), 脚踝 (zh) (jiǎohuái) Min Nan: 跤目 (kha-ba̍k) Croatian: gležanj (hr) m. Czech: kotník (cs) m. Danish: kno (da), ankel (da) Dutch: enkel (nl) m. Esperanto: maleolo (eo) Ewe: afɔkɔe n. Finnish: nilkka (fi) French: cheville (fr) f. German: Knöchel (de) m., Fußknöchel (de) m., enkel (de) Greek: αστράγαλος (el) (astrágalos) m. Hebrew: קרסול (he) (qarsol) m. Hungarian: boka (hu) Icelandic: ökkli (is) m. Ido: stifto (io) Irish: rúitín (ga) m., murnán (ga) m., caol na coise (ga) m., alt na coise (ga) m.

Italian: caviglia (it) f. Japanese: 足首 (ja) (あしくび, ashikubi), 踝 (ja) (くるぶし, kurubushi) Korean: 발목 (balmog, -mok) Kurdish: Kurmanji: gozek (ku) f. Latgalian: povuorška f. Latin: talus (la) m. Latvian: potīte (lv) f. Macedonian: глужд (mk) (glužd) m. Norwegian: ankel (no) m. Occitan: cavilha (oc) f. Old English: ancle, anclow Persian: قوزک پا (fa) (quzak), مچ پا (fa) (moch-é pâ) Polish: kostka (pl) f. Portuguese: tornozelo (pt) m. Romanian: gleznă (ro) f. Russian: лодыжка (ru) (lodýžka) f., щиколотка (ru) (ščíkolotka) f. Scottish Gaelic: adhbrann (gd) m. Slovak: členok (sk) m. Slovene: gleženj (sl) m. Spanish: tobillo (es) m. Swedish: ankel (sv), fotled (sv) c., vrist (sv) c. Taos: c’òwowo’óna Vietnamese: mắt cá chân (vi) Volapük: futayoin (vo) Warlpiri: tari Welsh: migwrn (cy) m.

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

Cherokee: ᎤᏣᏍᏆᎳᏛ (uṣaskwaladǝ)

Verb

ankle (third-person singular simple present ankles, present participle ankling, simple past and past participle ankled)

1. (US, slang) To walk.
   • 2009, Thomas Pynchon, Inherent Vice, Vintage 2010, p. 275:

     After a while he got up and ankled his way down the corridor and met Penny coming out of the toilet.

2. (cycling) To cyclically angle the foot at the ankle while pedaling, to maximize the amount of work applied to the pedal during each revolution.