bank

• banck, bancke, banke (obsolete)

• IPA^(key): /bæŋk/
  • (æ-raising) IPA^(key): [beɪŋk]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æŋk

From Middle English banke, from Middle French banque, from Italian banca (“counter, moneychanger's bench or table”), from Lombardic bank (“bench, counter”), from Proto-West Germanic *banki, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz (“bench, counter”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“to turn, curve, bend, bow”). Doublet of bench, banc, and banco.

For the bench-bank relation, compare typologically Russian ла́вка (lávka), прила́вок (prilávok).

bank (countable and uncountable, plural banks)

2. (countable) An institution where one can place and borrow money and take care of financial affairs.
   • 2013 June 1, “End of the peer show”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 71:

     Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. […] Banks and credit-card firms are kept out of the picture. Talk to enough people in the field and someone is bound to mention the “democratisation of finance”.

3. (countable) A branch office of such an institution.

   Synonym: (archaic) Lombard house

4. (countable) An underwriter or controller of a card game.

   Synonyms: banker, banque

5. (countable) A fund from deposits or contributions, to be used in transacting business; a joint stock or capital.
   • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Usury”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:

     Let it be no bank or common stock, but every man be master of his own money.

6. (gambling, countable) The sum of money etc. which the dealer or banker has as a fund from which to draw stakes and pay losses.
7. (slang, uncountable) Money; profit.
   • 2010, Paul Bouchard, Enlistment, page 113:

     Military dude was working for a drug dealer, right? and making good bank with it—he was making good money.

8. (countable) In certain games, such as dominos, a fund of pieces from which the players are allowed to draw.
9. (countable, chiefly in combination) A safe and guaranteed place of storage for and retrieval of important items or goods.

   blood bank; data bank; sperm bank

10. (countable) A device used to store coins or currency.

    If you want to buy a bicycle, you need to put the money in your piggy bank.

Some may be via other European languages.

bank (third-person singular simple present banks, present participle banking, simple past and past participle banked)

1. (intransitive) To deal with a bank or financial institution, or for an institution to provide financial services to a client.

   He banked with Barclays.

   • 1979, Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

     the sort of face you would happily bank with

2. (transitive) To put into a bank.

   I’m going to bank the money.

3. (transitive, slang) To conceal in the rectum for use in prison.

   Johnny banked some coke for me.

4. (transitive, finance) To provide banking services to.

   They proposed an ambitious plan to bank people in remote rural communities.

   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:bank.

From Middle English bank, banke, from Old English *banca (“bench”) (attested in Old English hōbanca (“couch”) and Old English banc (“bank, hillock, embankment”), from Proto-West Germanic *bankō, from Proto-Germanic *bankô. Akin to Old Norse bakki (“elevation, hill”), Norwegian bakke (“slope, hill”).

bank (plural banks)

2. (hydrology) An edge of river, lake, or other watercourse.
   • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     Tiber trembled underneath her banks.

   • 1943 June 8, “Jap Remnants Suffer Heavy Casualties: Alerts In Chungking”, in The Bombay Chronicle‎^[1], volume XXXI, number 134, page 1:

     On the opposite bank of the river other Chinese units attacked Taoshih and Yunmeng north-west of Hankow.

   • 2014 September 16, Ian Jack, “Is this the end of Britishness”, in The Guardian:

     Just upstream of Dryburgh Abbey, a reproduction of a classical Greek temple stands at the top of a wooded hillock on the river’s north bank.

4. (nautical, hydrology) An elevation under the sea; a shallow area of shifting sand, gravel, mud, and so forth

   Synonym: bar

   the banks of Newfoundland

5. (geography) A slope of earth, sand, etc.; an embankment.
6. (aviation) The incline of an aircraft, especially during a turn.
7. (rail transport) An incline, a hill.
   • 1940 December, O. S. M. Raw, “The Rhodesia Railways—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 640:

     This is the hardest duty on the railway, for the trains are heavy and there are some long 1 in 40 banks.

   • 2025 November 12, 'Mystery Shopper', “Is Devon the cream of the crop?”, in RAIL, number 1048, page 48:

     It's just as quick out of the blocks. The five-car unit has three engines, giving it 2,820hp to play with, so the once-'feared' Devon banks of Hemerdon, Rattery and Dainton are child's play to these trains.

8. A mass of clouds.

   The bank of clouds on the horizon announced the arrival of the predicted storm front.

9. (mining) The face of the coal at which miners are working.
10. (mining) A deposit of ore or coal, worked by excavations above water level.
11. (mining) The ground at the top of a shaft.

    Ores are brought to bank.

• bench

bank (third-person singular simple present banks, present participle banking, simple past and past participle banked)

1. (intransitive, aviation) To roll or incline laterally in order to turn.
3. (transitive) To cause (an aircraft) to bank.
4. (transitive) To form into a bank or heap, to bank up.

   to bank sand

5. (intransitive, of clouds) To form a bank; to gather in masses.

   Synonym: bank up

   • 2011 December 14, Sandra Birdsell, The Chrome Suite, Emblem Editions, →ISBN:

     […] clouds banking above the gravel road, their flat slate-blue bottoms threatening freezing rain or an early snowfall.

6. (transitive) To cover the embers of a fire with ashes in order to retain heat.
7. (transitive) To raise a mound or dike about; to enclose, defend, or fortify with a bank; to embank.
   • 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC:

     Aristoma∣chus would haue them to be stript from their leaues in winter, & in any hand to be banked well about, that the water stand not there in any hollow furrow or hole lower than the other ground

8. (transitive, obsolete) To pass by the banks of.
   • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, King John, act 5, scene 2:

     Have I not heard these islanders shout out / Vive le roi! as I have banked their towns?

9. (rail transport, UK) To provide additional power for a train ascending a bank (incline) by attaching another locomotive.
   • 1942 March, “Notes and News: Locomotive Notes”, in Railway Magazine, page 93:

     Some interesting facts have recently been made known by the L.N.E.R. concerning the 178-ton Garratt 2-8-0 + 0-8-2 engine No. 2395, which since construction in 1925 has spent the whole of its working life banking coal trains up the 3 miles of 1 in 40 between Wentworth junction and West Silkstone, on the Worsborough branch, near Barnsley.

   • 1960 July, “Motive Power Miscellany: Western Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 443:

     [...] the 4-4-0 unhappily stalled after a stop on Reading Old Bank with its eight-coach load and the Reading Up Line pilot, a "Hall", had to bank the train into Reading General.

   • 1960 September, P. Ransome-Wallis, “Modern motive power of the German Federal Railway: Part One”, in Trains Ilustrated, page 558:

     Soon after leaving Bebra the line rises, mostly at 1 in 74, for 7 miles to Cornberg and all trains of over 400 tons are banked.

• bank-and-turn indicator, turn-and-bank indicator

From Middle English bank, banke, from Old French banc (“bench”), from Frankish *banki, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz (“bench”). Akin to Old English benċ (“bench”).

bank (plural banks)

1. A row or panel of items stored or grouped together.

   a bank of switches

   a bank of pay phones

   • 2011 December 10, Marc Higginson, “Bolton 1 - 2 Aston Villa”, in BBC Sport‎^[2]:

     Wanderers were finally woken from their slumber when Kevin Davies brought a fine save out of Brad Guzan while, minutes after the restart, Klasnic was blocked out by a bank of Villa defenders.

2. A row of keys on a musical keyboard or the equivalent on a typewriter keyboard.
3. (computing) A contiguous block of memory that is of fixed, hardware-dependent size, but often larger than a page and partitioning the memory such that two distinct banks do not overlap.
4. (pinball) A set of multiple adjacent drop targets.

• (row or panel of items): (row) line, rank, tier; (panel) block, grid, panel

• double-bank
• filter bank, filterbank
• optical bank
• phone bank

bank (third-person singular simple present banks, present participle banking, simple past and past participle banked)

1. (transitive, order and arrangement) To arrange or order in a row.

Probably from French banc. Of Germanic origin, and akin to English bench.

bank (plural banks)

1. A bench, as for rowers in a galley; also, a tier of oars.
   • 1658, Edmund Waller, he Passion of Dido for Æneas:

     Placed on their banks, the lusty Trojans sweep / Neptune's smooth face, and cleave the yielding deep.

2. A bench or seat for judges in court.
3. The regular term of a court of law, or the full court sitting to hear arguments upon questions of law, as distinguished from a sitting at nisi prius, or a court held for jury trials. See banc^[1]
4. (archaic, printing) A kind of table used by printers.
5. (music) A bench, or row of keys belonging to a keyboard, as in an organ.^[2]

• Bank Royal
• Common Bank

• banc
• banquette
• frank bank

• “bank”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

• Knab, knab, nabk

• IPA^(key): /baŋk/

From Dutch bank, from Middle Dutch banc, from Old Dutch *bank, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz.

bank (plural banke, diminutive bankie)

1. bench, couch

• onder stoele of banke wegsteek
• toonbank

From Dutch bank, from Middle Dutch banc, from Italian banco, from Old High German bank, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz.

bank (plural banke, diminutive bankie)

1. bank (financial institution)
2. (games, gambling) bank, a player who controls a deposit in some card games or board games and in gambling

bank (present bank, present participle bankende, past participle gebank)

1. (transitive) to deposit, to bank
2. (intransitive) to bank

Borrowed from Russian банк (bank). Internationalism ultimately from French banque.

• Audio:

  (file)

bank (definite accusative bankı, plural banklar)

1. bank (financial institution)

• “bank” in Obastan.com.

Ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *banki.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbãŋk/

bank m (plural bankeier or bankoù)

1. bench
2. bank

   Synonyms: arc'hanti, ti-bank

• bank-ilinek
• bank-tosel
• gourvezvank
• kartenn-vank
• ti-bank

Borrowed from French banque.

bank (accusative [please provide], plural [please provide])

1. bank (financial institution)

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɑŋˀɡ/

Borrowed from French banque, from Italian banco (“bench”).

bank c (singular definite banken, plural indefinite banker)

1. bank (financial institution, branch office, controller of a game, a safe and guaranteed place of storage)

• bankanvisning
• bankier
• bankør

• → Faroese: banki
• → Greenlandic: banki
• → Icelandic: banki

From German Bank (“bench”).

bank c

1. only used in certain expressions

• over en bank

bank n (singular definite banket, plural indefinite bank)

1. knock (an abrupt rapping sound)
2. (pl) a beating

• (beating): tæsk, tæv

bank

1. imperative of banke

• “bank” in Den Danske Ordbog

• IPA^(key): /bɑŋk/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bank
• Rhymes: -ɑŋk

From Middle Dutch banc, from Old Dutch *bank, from Proto-West Germanic *banki, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz.

bank f (plural banken, diminutive bankje n)

1. bench

   Ik zit graag op die bank in het park. ― I like sitting on that bench in the park.

   Zet die bloemen op het bankje naast de deur. ― Put those flowers on the little bench next to the door.

   De oude mannen zaten op de banken en praatten. ― The old men sat on the benches and talked.

2. (Netherlands) couch, sofa

   Synonym: sofa

   We hebben een nieuwe bank gekocht voor de woonkamer. ― We bought a new couch for the living room.

   Het bankje is perfect voor de kinderkamer. ― The little sofa is perfect for the kids' room.

   De banken in die winkel zijn erg comfortabel. ― The couches in that store are very comfortable.

3. place where seashells are found
4. shallow part of the sea near the coast

• Afrikaans: bank
• Javindo: bang
• Negerhollands: bank, banki
• → Lokono: bañka
• → Papiamentu: banki
• → Sranan Tongo: bangi
  • → Aukan: bangi
  • → Caribbean Hindustani: bángi
  • → Caribbean Javanese: bangi
  • → Kari'na: bangi
  • → Saramaccan: bángi

From Middle Dutch banc, from Italian banco, from Old High German bank, from Proto-West Germanic *banki, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz, related to Etymology 1 above.

bank f (plural banken, diminutive bankje n)

1. a bank (financial institution)

   Ik moet naar de bank om wat geld op te nemen. ― I need to go to the bank to withdraw some money.

   Het bankje in het dorp is elke zondag gesloten. ― The small bank in the village is closed every Sunday.

   De banken zijn gesloten op nationale feestdagen. ― The banks are closed on national holidays.

2. (games, gambling) the bank, a player who controls a deposit in some card games or board games and in gambling
3. a banknote, especially 100 Dutch guilders (also in the diminutives bankie or bankje.)
4. a bank, collection and/or repository

• Afrikaans: bank
• → Aukan: banku
• → Caribbean Hindustani: bánk
• → Malay: bank
  • Indonesian: bank
  • → Central Dusun: bank
  • → Central Melanau: bank
  • → Makasar: bank
  • → Javanese: bang
  • → Sundanese: bank
• → Papiamentu: banki (dated)
• → Saramaccan: bánku
• → Sranan Tongo: bangi
  • → Trió: banku
• → West Frisian: bank

From German Bank, from Italian banca.^[1]

• IPA^(key): [ˈbɒŋk]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒŋk

bank (plural bankok)

1. bank (financial institution)

   Synonym: pénzintézet

2. (gambling) bank (the sum of money etc. which the dealer or banker has as a fund from which to draw stakes and pay losses)

• bank in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.
• bank in Nóra Ittzés, editor, A magyar nyelv nagyszótára [A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (Nszt.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published a–ez as of 2024).

Deverbal from banka (“to knock, to beat”).

• IPA^(key): /pauŋ̊k/
• Rhymes: -auŋ̊k

bank n (genitive singular banks, no plural)

1. knock, blow

Unadapted borrowing from Dutch bank (“bank”). Doublet of banco and bangku.

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈbaŋ/ [ˈbaŋ]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aŋ
• Homophone: bang

bank (plural bank-bank)

1. bank:
   1. (banking, finance) an institution where one can place and borrow money and take care of financial affairs
   2. a safe and guaranteed place of storage for and retrieval of important items or goods

• gedung uang
• rumah uang

• “bank”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016
• Bunbunan E. J. Hutampea; Soemarso S. R.; Jan Hoesada; Indriani Eko Yulianto; Meity Taqdir Qodratillah; T. B. Gultom (1993), Kamus Keuangan [Dictionary of Finance] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa, Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, →ISBN, page 5: “bank”

Unadapted borrowing from English bank, spelled earlier as beng and بيڠک.^[1][2] Doublet of bangku.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɛŋk/ [ˈbɛŋk̚], /ˈbaŋk/ [ˈbaŋk̚]
• Rhymes: -ɛŋk, -aŋk
• Hyphenation: bank

bank (Jawi spelling بڠک, plural bank-bank or bank²)

1. A bank:
   1. An institution that offers various financial services.
   2. A stock or reserve of something for use when it is needed.

      bank darah ― blood bank

• "bank" in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu (PRPM) [Malay Literary Reference Centre (PRPM)] (in Malay), Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017

Borrowed from Italian banco.

• IPA^(key): /bank/
• Rhymes: -ank

bank m (plural banek)

1. bank (financial building or institution)

   Synonym: mislef

2. bank (an underwater area of higher elevation, a sandbank)

bank m (plural bankijiet, diminutive bnajjak or banketta)

1. bench
2. counter (table or board on which business is transacted)
3. worktable
4. judge's seat

From Old English hōbanca (“couch”) and Old English banc (“bank, hillock, embankment”), from Proto-Germanic *bankô. Akin to Old Norse bakki (“elevation, hill”), Norwegian bakke (“slope, hill”).

bank (plural banks)

1. the bank of a river or lake

• English: bank

• “bank(e, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

• IPA^(key): /bɑŋk/

Borrowed from French banque, from Italian banco (“bench”), banca.

bank m (definite singular banken, indefinite plural banker, definite plural bankene)

1. a bank (financial institution)

From the verb banke.

bank m (definite singular banken, indefinite plural banker, definite plural bankene)

1. a beat, knock, throb

• hjertebank

bank

1. imperative of banke

• “bank” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “bank_4” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• “bank_5” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Borrowed from French banque, from Italian banco (“bench”), banca.

• IPA^(key): /bɑŋk/

bank m (definite singular banken, indefinite plural bankar, definite plural bankane)

1. a bank (financial institution)

• “bank” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• panch

From Proto-West Germanic *banki.

bank f

1. bench

• Middle High German: banc, bank
  • Bavarian: Bånk
  • German: Bank
    • → Danish: bank
    • → Norwegian Bokmål: bank
  • Luxembourgish: Bänk
  • Pennsylvania German: Bank
• → Old French: banc
  • French: banc (see there for further descendants)
  • Norman: banc
  • → Middle English: bank, banke
    • English: bank (see there for further descendants)
  • → Galician: banco
  • → Spanish: banco (see there for further descendants)
• → Old Italian: banco, banca
  • Italian: banco, banca (see there for further descendants)
    • ⇒ Italian: banchetto (see there for further descendants)
  • → Byzantine Greek: πάγκος (pánkos)
    • Greek: πάγκος (págkos)
  • → Middle French: banque (see there for further descendants)
  • → German: Bank (see there for further descendants)
• → Medieval Latin: bancus, banca

Internationalism; compare English bank, French banque, German Bank, ultimately from Lombardic bank.^[1][2]

• IPA^(key): /ˈbaŋk/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aŋk
• Syllabification: bank

bank m inan

1. bank (financial building, institution, or staff)

   bank centralny ― central bank

   bank emisyjny ― issuing bank

   bank hipoteczny ― mortgage bank

   bank inwestycyjny ― investment bank

   bank komercyjny ― commercial bank

2. bank (a safe and guaranteed place of storage for and retrieval of important items or goods)

   bank danych ― databank

   bank genów ― gene bank

   bank czasu ― time bank

   bank energii/powerbank ― powerbank

   bank spermy ― sperm bank

3. (gambling, card games) bank (a fund of pieces from which the players are allowed to draw)

   trzymać bank ― to keep bank

• bank in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• bank in Polish dictionaries at PWN

bánk

1. inflection of bánka:
   1. genitive dual
   2. genitive plural

From Dutch bank, German Bank or Low German bank, all from Italian banco, from Old High German banc, from Proto-West Germanic *banki, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbaŋːk/

• Audio:

  (file)

bank c

1. a bank (financial institution, branch of such an institution)
2. a bank (place of storage)
3. a bank (of a river of lake)
4. a sandbank

• → Elfdalian: baunka
• → Finnish: pankki

• bank in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Borrowed from French banc.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbank/, [ˈbɑŋk]
• Hyphenation: bank

bank (definite accusative bankı, plural banklar)

1. bench (long seat)

Other scripts
Latin	bank‍
Cyrillic	банк‍
Arabic	بانک

bank (definite accusative banky, plural banklar)

1. bank

bank (genitive banka, plural banks)

1. bank (financial institution)