Meaning & use
ankle
Last updated
UK/ˈæŋkl/
US/ˈæŋkl/
Meaning
nouncountable
The joint where the foot connects to the leg, or the thin part of the leg just above the foot.
Grammar: Has a plural: she hurt both ankles.
Patterns
- twist your ankle
- sprain your ankle
- around someone's ankle
He twisted his ankle while running down the stairs.
The water was only up to my ankles.
She wore a thin silver chain around her ankle.
Word forms
| plural | ankles |
|---|
Common combinations
- sprain an ankle
- She sprained an ankle during basketball practice.
- swollen ankle
- His swollen ankle was wrapped in ice.
- ankle injury
- An ankle injury kept the striker out for a month.
- ankle-deep
- The street was ankle-deep in water after the storm.
- ankle boots
- She bought brown ankle boots for the winter.
Synonyms and how they differ
- talocrural joint
- This is the medical name and appears in anatomy texts, not in everyday talk.
- fetlock
- Fetlock is the equivalent joint on a horse's leg, so it is not a general synonym.
Word family
- anklet noun
- a chain or band worn around the ankle
- ankle-length adjective
- reaching down to the ankle
- ankle-deep adjective
- as deep as the ankle
Commonly confused: ankle or wrist?
ankle vs wrist
The wrist joins the hand to the arm, while the ankle joins the foot to the leg.
Practice
After landing badly, the player could not walk because he had ___ his ankle.
Choose one answer.
Sprain is the natural verb for injuring the ligaments of a joint. Tripped would describe the fall, not the injury to the ankle itself.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “ankle”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.
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