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The noun ilk comes from the Old English pronoun ilca by way of a pronoun ilk that is still in use, but not in most modern English dialects. That ilk is synonymous with same, and persists chiefly in Scotland where it's used in the phrase "of that ilk," meaning "of the same place, territorial designation, or name." It is generally used in reference to the names of land-owning families and their eponymous estates, as in "the Grants of that ilk," which means "the Grants of Grant." In the late 1700s, the Scots phrase extended to mean "of that kind or sort," a usage that found its way into modern English.
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Examples of ilk in a Sentence
Leah Dolan, CNN, 29 July 2024
Ten years on, and with the streaming world continuing to fracture the television landscape, Blackout Thursday and its ilk now seem harder to envisage than ever.
—Jon O'Brien, IndieWire, 4 Nov. 2024
Like the best thrillers of this ilk, though, its darkest impulses do not weigh it down but rather give it a sadistic, jet-black comic edge.
—Declan Gallagher, EW.com, 30 Oct. 2024
Previously, Tri and its ilk have repaired these rifts, but something has gone awry, and Tri needs Zelda’s help to fix things.
—Ollie Barder, Forbes, 25 Oct. 2024
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Dictionary Entries Near ilk
Cite this Entry
“Ilk.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ilk. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
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