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dalek

Not valid in Scrabble

It's a recognised English word, but it isn't in the official NASPA Scrabble word list.

Scrabble points
10
Words With Friends
11
Letters
5
Pronunciation
/ˈdɑːlɛk/(UK)

Definition of dalek

3 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. A member of a species of extraterrestrial cyborg mutants who appear in the television programme Doctor Who and are known for travelling in metallic shells, having monotone, mechanically distorted voices, repeating a limited number of phrases, and their fanatical obsession with exterminating other, non-Dalek beings.
    “'But Alydon,' I persisted, 'the Daleks aren't human beings. They're just evil, half creatures, half machines, determined to destroy you.'”
    “[…] what kind of courage it must have taken for Hawkins, an actor renowned for the quality of his voice, to go back onto the set to deliver lines in that oesophageal monotone, what he called his "Dalek voice".”
    “This synthesizer is by far the best I have heard, because it varies the intonation, and does not speak like a Dalek.”
    “My voice still insisted on disappearing into my shoes every time it happened so that I sounded like a Dalek, but with a bit of experience behind me I felt marginally more confident.”
    “One man was skiting around on a big, wheeled camera like a Dalek, dodging the scurrying assistants and clipboard-wielders, […]”
See all 3 definitions

noun

  1. A member of a species of extraterrestrial cyborg mutants who appear in the television programme Doctor Who and are known for travelling in metallic shells, having monotone, mechanically distorted voices, repeating a limited number of phrases, and their fanatical obsession with exterminating other, non-Dalek beings.
    “'But Alydon,' I persisted, 'the Daleks aren't human beings. They're just evil, half creatures, half machines, determined to destroy you.'”
    “[…] what kind of courage it must have taken for Hawkins, an actor renowned for the quality of his voice, to go back onto the set to deliver lines in that oesophageal monotone, what he called his "Dalek voice".”
    “This synthesizer is by far the best I have heard, because it varies the intonation, and does not speak like a Dalek.”
    “My voice still insisted on disappearing into my shoes every time it happened so that I sounded like a Dalek, but with a bit of experience behind me I felt marginally more confident.”
    “One man was skiting around on a big, wheeled camera like a Dalek, dodging the scurrying assistants and clipboard-wielders, […]”
  2. (figuratively)One who is dogmatic, unfeeling and determined.
    “In an article in The Times Lord Chalfont said: "The programmed Daleks of the French military planners were evolving a plan which was really a carbon copy of the British plan."”
    “And rightly so, if only out of respect for the numerous idiosyncrasies left out of any generalized model of behaviour and, if only out of sheer personal honesty in admitting that individuals are never like the streamlined daleks of psychometric regressions.”
    “The following year Dennis Potter, by then dying of a cancer tumour he had named 'Rupert Murdoch', attacked [John] Birt as 'a croak-voiced Dalek' dressed in an Armani suit.”
    “In a remarkable speech in 2006, Ray criticised 'factional Daleks' and 'the Stasi element' — apparatchiks 'highly professional and proficient but with no Labor soul'.”
  3. (alt-of)Alternative letter-case form of Dalek.

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

Coined by Terry Nation in 1963 for his script of The Mutants (later retitled "The Daleks"), the second serial of the first season of Doctor Who. Accounts of how he…

See full etymology

Coined by Terry Nation in 1963 for his script of The Mutants (later retitled "The Daleks"), the second serial of the first season of Doctor Who. Accounts of how he devised the word vary. Within the Doctor Who universe, the word is supposed to be related to the name of the people from whom the Daleks evolved, either the Kaleds (as according to later serial Genesis of the Daleks) or the Dals (as in The Daleks), or to derive from a word meaning "gods" in their (fictional) language, in which the sacred "Book of Predictions" is written. According to the I, Davros audio fiction the book reads "...and on that day, men will become as gods", with the last word pronounced "Dal-eks".

Anagrams of dalek

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4-letter words

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3-letter words

12 words

2-letter words

9 words

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