Meaning & use
anorak
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Meanings
nouncountableBritish
A short, waterproof jacket with a hood, worn to keep out wind and rain.
Grammar: Countable: an anorak, two anoraks; more common in British English than American, where parka or windbreaker is used.
Patterns
- wear an anorak
- zip up an anorak
He zipped up his anorak before stepping into the drizzle.
The children hung their wet anoraks by the door.
I bought a bright red anorak for the walking holiday.
nouncountableBritishinformaldisapproving
A person who is very keen on a narrow, often technical hobby and knows far more detail about it than most people find interesting.
Grammar: Informal and slightly mocking; often describes someone who collects facts about trains, planes or similar subjects.
Patterns
- a train anorak
- an anorak about something
My uncle is a real railway anorak and can name every engine on the line.
Only a true anorak would remember the serial number of a bus.
She called herself a film anorak after watching every release of the decade.
Word forms
| plural | anoraks |
|---|
Common combinations
- waterproof anorak
- Pack a waterproof anorak for the hike.
- hooded anorak
- The boy wore a hooded anorak that was two sizes too big.
- train anorak
- A train anorak stood at the end of the platform writing down numbers.
- football anorak
- As a football anorak he knew every transfer fee.
- wear an anorak
- You will need to wear an anorak in this weather.
Synonyms and how they differ
- parka
- Parka is the usual American term for a long, warm hooded coat and tends to be thicker than an anorak.
- windbreaker
- Windbreaker is a lighter American word for a jacket that blocks wind but is not always waterproof.
- nerd
- Nerd is a wider, more general insult for a person obsessed with study or technology, while anorak points to an obsessive collector of facts about a hobby.
- geek
- Geek can be affectionate and is not tied to trivial detail in the way anorak is.
Word family
- anoraky adjective
- informal, typical of an obsessive hobbyist
- anorakish adjective
- like an anorak in the person sense
- parka noun
- related kind of hooded coat, from the same Arctic clothing tradition
Commonly confused: anorak or anorexic?
anorak vs anorexic
The words look similar but anorexic describes a person with the eating disorder anorexia, which has nothing to do with this word.
Practice
Tom is such a bus ______ that he can recite the timetable from memory.
Choose one answer.
In British English an anorak can be a person with an intense, narrow hobby. Parka, poncho and cardigan are clothes and cannot describe a person in this way.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “anorak”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.