Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Chalk |
ChalkNoun1. A soft whitish calcite. 2. A pure flat white with little reflectance. 3. A piece of chalk (or similar substance) used for writing on blackboards or other surfaces. Verb1. Write, draw, or trace with chalk. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "chalk" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Mining | Naturally occurring variety of calcium carbonate. Source: European Union. (references) |
Dream Interpretation | For a woman to dream of chalking her face, denotes that she will scheme to obtain admirers. To dream of using chalk on a board, you will attain public honors, unless it is the blackboard; then it indicates ill luck. To hold hands full of chalk, disappointment is foretold. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Literature | Chalk I'll chalk out your path for you- i.e. lay it down or plan it out as a carpenter or ship-builder plans out his work with a piece of chalk. I can walk a chalk as well as you. I am no more drunk than you are. The allusion is to the ordeal on board ship of trying men suspected of drunkenness. They were required to walk along a line chalked on the deck, without deviating to the right or left. The tapster is undone by chalk, i.e. credit. The allusion is to scoring up credit on a tally with chalk. This was common enough early in the nineteenth century, when milk scores, bread scores, as well as beer scores were general. Chalk it up. Put it to his credit. As good-humoured sarcasm, Chalk it up! is tantamount to saying, "What you have done so astonishes me that I must make some more or less permanent record of it." Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Mining | A soft, earthy, fine-textured, usually white to light-gray or buff limestone of marine origin. It consists almost wholly (90% to 99%) of calcite, formed mainly by shallow-water accumulation of calcareous remains of floating microorganisms (chiefly foraminifers) and of comminuted remains of calcareous algae, set in a structureless matrix of very finely crystalline calcite. The rock is porous, somewhat friable, and onlyslightly coherent. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Chalk is a soft form of the mineral calcium carbonate. Chalk is relatively resistant to erosion and slumping and so forms tall steep cliffs where chalk ridges meet the sea. Chalk hills, known as chalk downland, usually form where bands of chalk reach the surface at an angle. As they are slowly eroded a steep scarp slope forms where the rock has been removed, and a shallow dip slope remains where the rock has not been eroded. Chalk is permeable and can hold large quantities of water, removing the need for large reservoirs in areas with chalk hills. The height of the water table in chalk hills rises in winter and falls in summer, and chalk areas often contain bournes - rivers which are dry in the summer, and in England many villages named Winterbourne can be found in the South Downs, Dorset Downs and Salisbury Plain.
Chalk can be found in many places, including:
In the United Kingdom:
In the United States:
- Dorset Downs
- Isle of Wight
- On the Jurassic Coast (Dorset):
- Lulworth Cove
- Old Harry Rocks
- White Nothe
- Salisbury Plain
- South Downs
- On the Sussex coast:
- At Beachy Head
- At Eastbourne
- At the famous white cliffs of Dover
The substance known as "blackboard chalk", often supplied in sticks about 2 inches (or 5 cm) long and used for drawing, especially on blackboards and sidewalks, is not actually chalk: it is made from gypsum, calcium sulfate. Similarly, the "chalk" used by tailors is usually made from talc, magnesium silicate.
- In the extensive Austin Chalk formation, which underlies much of central Texas
See also: List of minerals
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Chalk."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Dissimilarity | Nothing of the kind; no such thing, quite another thing; far from it, cast in a different mold, tertium quid, as like a dock as a daisy, "very like a whale "; as different as chalk from cheese, as different as Macedon and Monmouth; lucus a non lucendo. |
Engraving | Noun: engraving, chalcography; line engraving, mezzotint engraving, stipple engraving, chalk engraving; dry point, bur; etching, aquatinta; chiseling; plate engraving, copperplate engraving, steel engraving, wood engraving; xylography, lignography, glyptography, cerography, lithography, chromolithography, photolithography, zincography, glyphography, xylograph, lignograph, glyptograph, cerograph, lithograph, chromolithograph, photolithograph, zincograph, glyphograph, holograph. |
Ignorance | Verb: be ignorant; Adjective: not know; know not, know not what, know nothing of; have no idea, have no notion, have no conception; not have the remotest idea; not know chalk from cheese. |
Indication | Put an indication, put a mark; Noun: note, mark, stamp, earmark; blaze; label, ticket, docket; dot, spot, score, dash, trace, chalk; print; imprint, impress; engrave, stereotype. |
Land | Soil, glebe, clay, loam, marl, cledge, chalk, gravel, mold, subsoil, clod, clot; rock, crag. |
Painting | Verb: paint, design, limn draw, sketch, pencil, scratch, shade, stipple, hatch, dash off, chalk out, square up; color, dead color, wash, varnish; draw in pencil; Noun: paint in oils; Noun: stencil; depict; (represent). |
Pallet, palette; easel; brush, pencil, stump; black lead, charcoal, crayons, chalk, pastel; paint; (coloring matter); watercolor, body color, oil color; oils, oil paint; varnish; a, priming; gouache, tempera, distemper, fresco, water glass; enamel; encaustic painting; mosaic; tapestry. | |
Plan | Verb: plan,scheme, design, frame, contrive, project, forecast, sketch; devise, invent; (imagine); set one's wits to work; spring a project; fall upon, hit upon; strike out, chalk out, cut out, lay out, map out; lay down a plan; shape out a course, mark out a course; predetermine; concert, preconcert, preestablish; prepare; hatch, hatch a plot concoct; take steps, take measures. |
Teacher | Professor, lecturer, reader, prelector, prolocutor, preacher; chalk talker, khoja; pastor; (clergy); schoolmaster, dominie, usher, pedagogue, abecedarian; schoolmistress, dame, monitor, pupil teacher. |
Teaching | Explanation; (interpretation); lesson, lecture, sermon; apologue, parable; discourse, prolection, preachment; chalk talk; Chautauqua. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Chalk |
| English words defined with "chalk": alkalic, alkaline ♦ blackboard, blackboard eraser, bluff, bold, Bufonite ♦ calcareous, Calciform, calcium carbonate, Calcography, Carbonic acid, chalk dust, Chalk line, Chalk mixture, Chalk pit, chalk talk, chalkboard, Chalkcutter, Chalked, Chalking, chalkpit, Chalkstone, chalky, cretaceous, Cretaceous formation, Cretaceously ♦ deaden, draw, Drawing slate, Druid stones, Dutch pink ♦ French chalk ♦ geophagia, Geophagist, geophagy, Graphotype ♦ Malmbrick, Micraster ♦ Neocomian ♦ pica ♦ Reddle, rose pink, Rotalite ♦ Sarsen, sheer, Spanish white, Supracretaceous ♦ tailor's chalk, To chalk out ♦ Verditer. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "chalk": Chalk and Cheese, CHALK CUTTER, chalk rock, chalk troops ♦ Long Chalk. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "chalk": Tiza. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | What are you gonna do? Draw the chalk outline around me (Caroline in the City; writing credit: Angela Carneiro) I warned ya about the colored chalk, didn't I warn ya (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge) Eat chalk, evil-doer (Malcolm in the Middle; writing credit: Daniel Frenette) A real heavyweight water buffalo type who could chew his way through a concrete wall and spit out the other side covered with lime and chalk and look good in doing it. (Where the Buffalo Roam; writing credit: Hunter S. Thompson) Chalk up one for your side (It Happened One Night; writing credit: Samuel Hopkins Adams; Robert Riskin) | |
Lyrics | Or you and your homies might be lined in chalk (Gangsta's Paradise; performing artist: Coolio) Chalk 'em out (Left & Right Featuring Method Man And Redman; performing artist: D'Angelo) I burn burn like a wicker cabinet chalk white and oh so frail (Inside Out; performing artist: Eve 6) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Caucasian Chalk Circle (1973) The Chalk Garden (1964) Chalk Marks (1924) Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings (2002) Chalk (2001) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Music |
| ||
Consumer Goods | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | A woman in a red shirt explains a chart in a booklet by drawing it on a blackboard in colored chalk. See artwork: OCC-04. Credit: Bill Branson (photographer). |  | Pepco's Chalk Point Generating Plant on the Patuxent River. A pipeline carrying oil to this plant burst and spilled 100,000 gallons of oil into Swanson Creek on April 7, 2000. Credit: America's Coastlines. |
 | Sign Happy Jack Chalk mine Scotia, NE. Credit: USDA. |  | Dawn view from the peak of the Happy Jack Chalk mine. Credit: USDA. |
 | Vickie Bauer NRCS RC&D talks with some local high school students about the Happy Jack Chalk mine peak Scotia, NE. Credit: USDA. |  | Volunteers from a local high school look over plans for improvements to the Happy Jack Chalk mine Scotia, NE. Credit: USDA. |
 | Local high school volunteers works on cleaning up at the Happy Jack Chalk mine peak Scotia, NE. Credit: USDA. |  | NRCS employees take measurements at the Happy Jack Chalk mine peak Scotia, NE. Credit: USDA. |
 | Visitors at Chalk Basin of the Lower Owyhee Canyon. OR 3-110. Credit: Harmon. |  | Aerial view of the Owyhee Chalk Basin in the Lower Owyhee Canyon Wilderness Study Area. OR 3-110. Credit: Unknown. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |
| "Chalk Drawing of Boy" by Matthew Maaskant Commentary: "A chalk drawing of a boy made on the concrete. Visit http://www.qr5.com ." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Children | Djibouti | The Government provides public education for free; however, there are extra expenses that may be prohibitive to poorer families, such as transportation, book fees, and chalk. (references) |
Economic History | Belarus | Belarus also has deposits of clay, sand, chalk, dolomite, phosphorite, and rock and potassium salt. (references) |
United Kingdom | Natural resources: Coal, oil, natural gas, tin, limestone, iron ore, salt, clay, chalk, gypsum, lead, silica. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Chalk" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 96.78% of the time. "Chalk" is used about 931 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 96.78% | 901 | 7,938 |
| Noun (proper) | 3.22% | 30 | 63,341 |
| Total | 100.00% | 931 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "chalk" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Chalk | Last name | 1,000 | 12,083 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
| The following table summarizes names derived from the word "chalk". | |||
| Name | Gender | Language | Meaning |
| Chelsea | Female | English | A chalk landing |
| Chelsey | Female | English | A chalk landing |
| Chelsie | Female | English | A chalk landing |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references.
| |||
1. Chalk, TX |
Expressions using "chalk": black chalk ♦ by a long chalk ♦ by long chalk ♦ chalk commander ♦ Chalk drawing ♦ chalk dust ♦ Chalk formation ♦ chalk line ♦ chalk mark ♦ Chalk mixture ♦ chalk number ♦ chalk out ♦ Chalk period ♦ Chalk pit ♦ chalk talk ♦ chalk troops ♦ chalk up ♦ Drawing chalk ♦ french chalk ♦ it's as different as chalk and cheese ♦ not know chalk from cheese ♦ red chalk ♦ spanish chalk ♦ tailor's chalk ♦ To chalk out ♦ turn as white as chalk ♦ venetian chalk ♦ white as chalk. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "chalk": chalk-and-cheese, chalk-and-talk, chalk-bag, chalk-based, chalk-boards, chalk-caves, chalk-drawn, chalk-dust, chalk-dusted, chalk-figured, chalk-free, chalk-haired, chalk-hill, chalk-like, chalk-line, chalk-marked, chalk-or-cheese, chalk-pit, chalk-rich, chalk-smeared, chalk-stone, chalk-stripe, chalk-striped, chalk-waggons, chalk-white. | |
Ending with "chalk": nitro-chalk. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
chalk | 267 | chalk hill lodge | 14 |
chalk board | 236 | chalk spray | 13 |
chalk boards | 99 | chalk talk | 13 |
chalk airline | 70 | chalk hill | 13 |
chalk zone | 58 | caucasian chalk circle | 13 |
big chalk | 57 | window chalk | 12 |
chalk bag | 34 | chalk drawing | 11 |
sidewalk chalk | 27 | dave chalk | 11 |
airway chalk ocean | 27 | chalk airway | 11 |
chalk bluff | 25 | chalk river | 11 |
chalk paint | 25 | chalk scrapbooking | 10 |
cottingham chalk | 23 | chalk holder | 10 |
bluff chalk park | 22 | chalk air | 10 |
chalk art | 20 | chalk hill winery | 10 |
chalk outline | 19 | chalk make | 9 |
chalk board paint | 16 | chalk zone.com | 9 |
rock chalk | 15 | absolut chalk | 9 |
chalk line | 15 | rock chalk zone | 8 |
chalk font | 15 | chalk box | 8 |
simon in the land of chalk drawing | 14 | chalk liquid | 8 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "chalk"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | tebeshir, shkumës, shkruaj me shkumës, shënoj (aim, arrow, book, calendar, catalogue, charge, commit to paper, denote, earmark, indicate, itemize, jot down, kick, Mark, note, note down, pencil, post, punch, put down, record, remark, score, scribe, set off, sink, tally, tick off, write down), regjistroj (book, calendar, catalogue, check in, cut a disk, cut the record, dub, enrol, enroll, enter, file, list, notify, record, register), lyej me shkumës, borxh (arrearage, arrears, borrowing, charge, debt, indebtedness, liability, owing, score). (various references) | |
Arabic | علامة بطبشورة, طباشير, طبشورة, الطباشير. (various references) | |
Asturian | xiz. (various references) | |
Basque | klarioi (piece of chalk). (various references) | |
Bemba | coko. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | тебешир (whiting), креда (crayon, whitening, whiting), кредит в кръчма, варовик (camstone, limestone), наторявам с варовик, знак с тебешир, пиша с тебешир. (various references) | |
Cebuano | tisa. (various references) | |
Chamorro | chak. (various references) | |
Chinese | 白垩, 粉筆 . (various references) | |
Cornish | calghen. (various references) | |
Czech | křída. (various references) | |
Danish | kridt (whiting). (various references) | |
Dutch | krijt (arena, Cretaceous). (various references) | |
Ecuadorian Quechua | tiza. (various references) | |
Faeroese | krit. (various references) | |
Farsi | نشان(ز.ع.), گچ (Plaster, Stucco), علامت سفیدکردن , باگچ نشان گذاردن , باگچ خطکشیدن . (various references) | |
Finnish | liitu (whiting). (various references) | |
French | craie. (various references) | |
Frisian | kryt. (various references) | |
German | Kreide (whiting). (various references) | |
Greek | κιμωλία (whiting). (various references) | |
Hebrew | גיר (lime). (various references) | |
Hungarian | kréta (chalk-stone, Crete), mészkő (bath stone, freestone, limestone, ragstone), krétapor. (various references) | |
Indonesian | kapur (lime). (various references) | |
Inuktitut | ilisaijiup titirauta. (various references) | |
Italian | creta (clay, Crete), gesso (gypsum, plaster, plaster of paris). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 白墨. (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | チョーク (chock), チャコ , カルキ , はくぼく, はくあ (white wall). (various references) | |
Korean | 백묵. (various references) | |
Macedonian | kreda. (various references) | |
Manx | kelk (mark, pipeclay). (various references) | |
Maori | tioka. (various references) | |
Norwegian | kritt. (various references) | |
Occitan | greda (piece of chalk). (various references) | |
Papiamen | kreit. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | alkchay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | giz (calcium carbonate, CI pigment white 18, E170), griz, greda (clay, loam, malm). (various references) | |
Provencal | greda. (various references) | |
Romanian | cretã (whiting), calcar, var (lime), trasa cu cretã, rãboj (Nick, notch, score, tally), fertiliza (dress, fecundate, fertilize, fructify, impregnate), desena cu cretã, amenda (amend, amerce, castigate, emend, fine, improve on, improve upon, mulct), însemnare (denotation, jotting, memorandum, note, noting, score, scotch, scratch, sign, tally), însemna cu cretã. (various references) | |
Romansch | crida. (various references) | |
Ruanda | ingwa. (various references) | |
Russian | мел (whitening, whiting). (various references) | |
Samoan | penisina. (various references) | |
Scottish | cailc (va. chalk). (various references) | |
Sepedi | tahoko. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | kreda. (various references) | |
Spanish | tiza (chalk-stone, whiting), greda (clay), creta (Crete). (various references) | |
Swedish | krita (crayon). (various references) | |
Turkish | veresiye verilen şey için koyulan işaret, tebeşirle yazmak (chalk up), tebeşirle çizmek, tebeşirle çizilen çizgi, tebeşir katmak, tebeşir, kireçtaşı (limestone), beyazlatmak (blanch, bleach, whiten). (various references) | |
Turkmen | mel (r), hek (lime). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | удобрювати вапном, робити білим, рахунок (account, bill, chit, count, expense, reckoning, score, scoring, tick), шарм, крейда (whiting), кредит (credit, tick), забруднювати крейдою, борг (arrears, bad, debt), подряпина (graze, notch, scrape, scratch), пастель (crayon, pastel, pastil, pastille), писати крейдою. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | chạy trốn (fugitive, runaway), tẩu (hook), bỏ xa không biết gì cả. (various references) | |
Welsh | sialc. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | gypsos, khalix. (various references) |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | creta. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "chalk": chalkboard, chalkboards, chalked, chalkier, chalkiest, chalking, chalks, chalky. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "chalk": bechalk. (additional references) | |
Words containing "chalk": bechalked, bechalking, bechalks. (additional references) | |
| |
"Chalk" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Bhaluk, cahl, chack, Chagla, chaka, chal, Chala, Chalak, chalc, chalce, chald, chale, chall, challa, challe, chalm, Chalo, chalt, Chapka, chask, Chauk, chaulk, chawl, Chawla, Chazli, cheal, chel, Chelm, chelo, chilkd, chilm, chipko, chl, Cholm, chualk, kalc, Kalk, Khal, Khalkh, Schalke. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "chalk" (pronounced khÄ"k) |
| 3 | kh Ä" k | chock. |
| 2 | -Ä" k | antiknock, antilock, Bach, Bangkok, bloc, block, Bock, Brock, caulk, clock, Croc, crock, Doc, dock, floc, flock, frock, hock, interlock, Jock, knock, Loch, lock, Mach, mock, Nock, overstock, pock, restock, Roc, rock, schlock, shock, smock, sock, stock, undock, unlock, walk, wok. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-h-k-l" | |
-1 letter: calk, hack, lack, lakh. | |
-2 letters: lac. | |
-3 letters: ah, al, ha, ka, la. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-h-k-l" | |
+1 letter: chalks, chalky, hackle, hackly, klatch. | |
+2 letters: bechalk, chalked, hackled, hackler, hackles, halakic, klatsch, kolache, shackle. | |
+3 letters: backhaul, backlash, bechalks, blackish, chalkier, chalking, charlock, hacklers, hacklier, hackling, hairlock, halfback, havelock, headlock, holdback, klatches, kreplach, latchkey, shackled, shackler, shackles, shellack. | |
+4 letters: backcloth, backhauls, backlight, backslash, bechalked, blackfish, blackhead, blockhead, chalkiest, charlocks, checkable, flashback, hackliest, hairlocks, halfbacks, havelocks, headlocks, holdbacks, jacklight, kalanchoe, klatsches, latchkeys, mahlstick, marchlike, matchlock, sackcloth, shacklers, shackling, shashlick, shellacks, shellback, shockable, shoeblack, solonchak, unshackle, whaleback. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Names: Frequency 12. Names: Derived from | 13. Cities 14. Expressions 15. Expressions: Internet 16. Translations: Modern | 17. Translations: Ancient 18. Derivations 19. Rhymes 20. Anagrams | 21. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
