Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Showing results for stilt. Search instead for stilts.
Synonyms

stilt

American  
[stilt] / stɪlt /

noun

  1. one of two poles, each with a support for the foot at some distance above the bottom end, enabling the wearer to walk with their feet above the ground.

  2. one of several posts supporting a structure built above the surface of land or water.

  3. Ceramics. a three-armed support for an object being fired.

  4. any of several wading birds with very long pink legs and a long, slender bill, including the black-and-white Cladorhynchus leucocephalus and Himantopus himantopus.

  5. British Dialect.

    1. a plow handle.

    2. a crutch.

verb (used with object)

  1. to raise on or as if on stilts.

stilt British  
/ stɪlt /

noun

  1. either of a pair of two long poles with footrests on which a person stands and walks, as used by circus clowns

  2. a long post or column that is used with others to support a building above ground level

  3. any of several shore birds of the genera Himantopus and Cladorhynchus, similar to the avocets but having a straight bill

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. (tr) to raise or place on or as if on stilts

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • stiltlike adjective

Etymology

Origin of stilt

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English stilte; cognate with Low German stilte “pole,” German Stelze

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.

It’s shifted over the years — there were stilt walkers for a bit, and Sawdust’s historical site notes there was once a mascot in “Jelf,” part jester, part elf.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 4, 2025

Encircling the footprint of each roundhouse were "middens," haloes of rubbish dumped from the stilt village above, included broken pots, butchered animal bone, and "coprolites" or fossilised faeces.

From Science Daily • Mar. 20, 2024

“Her work in the city is unequaled in building an empire, and she’s still building,” said Carol Passarinha, one of the 30 stilt walkers Potí assembled to parade this week with the reigning samba school.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 10, 2024

I mean, literally physically starving a lot of the time, and he learned to be a carnival barker, a stilt walker.

From Salon • Dec. 19, 2023

“Stay stilt grunted the dwarf, grabbing hold of Harry’s bag and pulling him back. “Let me go!”

From "Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets" by J. K. Rowling

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.