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won·ky

(wŏngkē)

adj. won·ki·er, won·ki·est
Chiefly British

1. Shaky or unsteady: a wonky table.

2. Out of alignment; crooked: "The door itself looked wonky somehow, not quite square with the building" (Steve Augarde).

3. Not functioning properly or normally: wonky digestion; a wonky phone connection.

4. Mentally unbalanced; crazy.

[Probably alteration of dialectal wanky, alteration of wankle, from Middle English wankel, from Old English wancol, unsteady.]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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