ankle

Example sentences

• "He twisted his ankle while he was running."

  Level A2

• "The water was ankle deep."

  Level A2

• "She wore ankle boots with her jeans."

  Level A2

• "The doctor wrapped the sore ankle in a bandage."

  Level A2

Look-alikes and common mistakes

• wrist : The wrist joins the hand to the arm. The ankle joins the foot to the leg.
• heel : The heel is the back of the foot. The ankle is the joint above it.

Word family and forms

Forms: ankles

Word partners

Words and phrases that often go with "ankle".

• twist an ankle
• a sprained ankle
• a broken ankle
• ankle boots
• ankle deep
• ankle socks

Origin

Ankle comes from Old English ancol, which goes back to an early Germanic form. English had the word before the year 1000. Related forms exist in Dutch and German, such as enkel, and they all name the same joint.

Checked against: Wiktionary, the free dictionary, Dictionary.com.

How to remember it

Ankle and angle sound alike, and the ankle is the angle where the foot meets the leg.

Test yourself

Learn next at A1

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