chalk
Americannoun
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a soft, white, powdery limestone consisting chiefly of fossil shells of foraminifers.
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a prepared piece of chalk or chalklike substance for marking, as for writing on a blackboard.
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a mark made with chalk.
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a score or tally.
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Sports Slang. the competitor considered most likely to win by the oddsmakers; favorite.
If you don’t know anything about either team, just bet the chalk.
verb (used with object)
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to mark or write with chalk.
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to rub over or whiten with chalk.
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to treat or mix with chalk.
to chalk a billiard cue.
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to make pale; blanch.
Terror chalked her face.
verb (used without object)
adjective
verb phrase
noun
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a soft fine-grained white sedimentary rock consisting of nearly pure calcium carbonate, containing minute fossil fragments of marine organisms, usually without a cementing material
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a piece of chalk or a substance like chalk, often coloured, used for writing and drawing on a blackboard
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a line, mark, etc made with chalk
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billiards snooker a small cube of prepared chalk or similar substance for rubbing the tip of a cue
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a score, tally, or record
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informal totally different in essentials
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informal by far
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to be unable to judge or appreciate important differences
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informal by no means; not possibly
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(modifier) made of chalk
verb
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to draw or mark (something) with chalk
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(tr) to mark, rub, or whiten with or as if with chalk
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(intr) (of paint) to become chalky; powder
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(tr) to spread chalk on (land) as a fertilizer
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of chalk
First recorded before 900; Middle English chalk, schalk, calk, Old English cealc “plaster, cement”; cognate with Old Saxon calc, Dutch kalk, German Kalch, Kalk, from Latin calc- (stem of calx ) “lime, limestone, quicklime,” from Greek chálix “small stone, rubble, gravel, mortar”
Explanation
Chalk is a very soft kind of rock or limestone. While chalk is made of shells and the skeletons of sea creatures, it's usually found above sea level in pits or quarries. Chalk is made of the element calcium carbonite, and it has agricultural uses, as well as showing up (in tiny amounts) in both toothpaste and antacids. The kind of chalk that you use for writing on a blackboard or decorating the sidewalk was originally made from calcium carbonite, but modern writing chalk is more often made of gypsum, a related form of calcium. Chalk comes from the Latin calx, "limestone," with the Greek root khalix, "small pebble."
Vocabulary lists containing chalk
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But he has already made history after becoming the youngest player to chalk up five goal involvements at a single World Cup since records began.
From BBC • Jul. 8, 2026
Extensive monitoring of the chalk stream has taken place for more than a decade, since the first reintroduction of water voles to the river in 2013.
From BBC • Jun. 30, 2026
Buglife explains chalk grassland is a rare and fragile habitat found along Surrey's rolling downs, supporting a rich diversity of wildflowers and insects found nowhere else.
From BBC • Jun. 13, 2026
It was inspired by Cullen's son Lee, after she spotted a message he had written in chalk on a pavement when he was eight years old.
From BBC • Jun. 9, 2026
She was panting and pushing, her face chalk white and drenched in sweat.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
