Oakum

Definition: Oakum

Oakum

Noun

1. Loose hemp or jute fiber obtained by unravelling old ropes; when impregnated with tar it was used to caulk seams and pack joints in wooden ships.

Date "oakum" was first used: 1420s. (references)

Domain	Definitions
Building & Civil Engineering	Hemp or untwisted rope used for calking joints. Source: European Union. (references)
Literature	Oakum Untwisted rope; used for caulking the seams (i.e. spaces between the planks) of a ship. It is forced in by chisel and mallet. To pick oakun. To make oakum by untwisting old ropes. A common employment in prisons and workhouses. Source: Brewer's Dictionary.
Mining	Loosely twisted fiber usually of hemp or jute impregnated with tar or with a tar derivative (such as creosote or asphalt); used in caulking seams (such as the wood hulls and decks of ships) and in packing joints (inpipes, caissons, etc.). (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Filament	Wire, string, thread, packthread, cotton, sewing silk, twine, twist, whipcord, tape, ribbon, cord, rope, yarn, hemp, oakum, jute.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Oakum

English words defined with "oakum": Chinse ♦ Making-iron, Meaking, Meaking iron ♦ Pledget ♦ Rasing iron, ravehook ♦ White oakum. (references)

Specialty definitions using "oakum": ARTHUR ♦ KING ARTHUR ♦ TILE-CONDUIT LAYER. (references)

Title	Author	Quote
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	By the advice of Fourcroy, they lighted from point to point, in the places sufficiently purified, great cages full of oakum and saturated with resin.
Walden	Thoreau, Henry David	Yet we should oftener look over the tafferel of our craft, like curious passengers, and not make the voyage like stupid sailors picking oakum.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Oakum" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Oakum" is used about 11 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)	100%	11	106,044

Expressions using "oakum": black oakum ♦ pick oakum ♦ white oakum. Additional references.
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.

Language		Translations for "oakum"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		shtupë litari të zhdredhur. (various references)

Bulgarian		кълчища. (various references)

Chinese		麻屑絮. (various references)

Czech		koudel (tow). (various references)

Farsi		الیاف قیراندودکنف مخصوص درزگیری . (various references)

Finnish		tilkkeet. (various references)

French		filasse. (various references)

German		werg (tow). (various references)

Greek		στυππείο, στουπί (lint, tow, wad, wadding, without juice). (various references)

Hungarian		tömítés (blinding, casing, caulk, gasket, pad, plugging, plumbing, seal, sealing, stuffing), szösz (junk, tow), kenderkóc (junk, tow), kóc (Hards, tow), csepû, csepű (tow). (various references)

Italian		stoppa per calafataggio. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		麻屑 (tow). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		あさくず (tow). (various references)

Korean		뱃밥. (various references)

Manx		shenn chennip, calcys. (various references)

Pig Latin		oakumay

Portuguese		noz-de-galha (nut-gall, oaklet). (various references)

Romanian		pieptãnãturã (hair do, haircut), câlţi (tow). (various references)

Russian		пакля (tow). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		kučina (hards, tow, wad). (various references)

Spanish		estopa (burlap, tow). (various references)

Swedish		drev (beat, drive, gear, gearwheel, pinion, tow). (various references)

Thai		เชือกด้ายดิบ. (various references)

Turkish		üstüpü. (various references)

Ukranian		клоччя. (various references)

Welsh		carth (off-scouring, tow). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Old English	450-1100	acumba. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "oakum": oakums. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Oakum" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Akam, Akfm, Akumu, Bokum, Dakoum, Erkum, makum, oaka, oau, oauh, oaum, ockum, okam, okum, Okuno, Onkom, Orakwue, Qayum, takum, ukaiim. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Words rhyming with "oakum" (pronounced 'Oak"um'): Alarum, Amoebaeum, Brontozoum, Bryozoum, Chloralum, Conium, Decorum, harum-scarum, lyceum, mausoleum, Mesophloeum, Meum, Minum, museum, Notaeum, Odeum, Ommateum, Otozoum, Perinaeum, Perineum, Peritoneum, Phleum, Pleuroperitoneum, Proctodaeum, Propylaeum, Prytaneum, Retineum, Stomatodaeum, Stomodaeum, Tuum, Uraeum, Xenodochium. (additional references)

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-k-m-o-u"
	-1 letter: amok, mako.
	-2 letters: amu, auk, koa, moa, oak, oka.
	-3 letters: am, ka, ma, mo, mu, om, um.
	Words containing the letters "a-k-m-o-u"
	+1 letter: oakums.
	+2 letters: leukoma.
	+3 letters: leukomas, mazourka, moussaka.
	+4 letters: automaker, mazourkas, molluskan, moonquake, moussakas, touchmark.
	+5 letters: automakers, cockalorum, microquake, moonquakes, mountebank, touchmarks.
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.