Standard Lemma guide

kilter

noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈkɪltə/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈkɪltɚ/
  • rhymes with -ɪltə(ɹ)
  • CMU ARPABET: K IH1 L T ER0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Chiefly in out of kilter: (good) condition, form, or order; fettle.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

Examples

  • not in kilter

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A hand of playing cards which is useless.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: card-games, games, poker

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

in working order

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • out of kilter
  • in good kilter

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: kelter

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: orderliness, order

History

Etymology

A variant of dialectal kelter (“good condition, order”), of unknown origin; possibly related to kilt (“to gather up (skirts) around the body”) (cognate with Danish kilte (“to tuck”)), or Scots kilt (“proper way of doing something, knack”) (probably from kilt (“a slope; a tilt”), possibly a variant of English tilt). In the 19th century, kelter was the more common form in the United Kingdom, while kilter was more common in the United States. Due to the influence of the latter, kilter is now the more prevalent form in all English varieties.

Probably a variant of dialectal kelter (“odds and ends; litter, rubbish”); further etymology unknown.

Across languages

Translations

7 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: порядък (porjadǎk) — (good) condition, form, or order
  • Bulgarian: изправност (izpravnost) — (good) condition, form, or order
  • Chinese Mandarin: 良好狀態 /良好状态 (liánghǎozhuàngtài) — (good) condition, form, or order
  • Czech: forma — (good) condition, form, or order
  • German: Einklang — (good) condition, form, or order
  • German: Ordnung — (good) condition, form, or order
  • German: Zustand — (good) condition, form, or order