Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A heavy jacket with a hood; a parka.
Wiktionary
- n. A heavy weatherproof jacket with an attached hood; a parka or windcheater.
- n. UK, slang A geek or nerd, possibly originally either a train spotter or a fan of off-shore pirate radio.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a kind of heavy jacket (`windcheater' is a British term)
Etymologies
- From Greenlandic annoraaq. (Wiktionary)
- Inuit annoraaq. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“SWEENEY: Patrick, the word anorak comes to mind and that comes from my childhood, but it was where people would have a fixation on a particular thing, it might be radio presenters or people in news or something like that, and they would constantly communicate with each other.”
“In fact, he is something of an "anorak" on the subject.”
The Guardian: The NUT's John Bangs – the best leader they never had – is stepping down
“It's well known that "anorak" is just a foreign name for a dirty mac, so the UK government probably thinks they've already got that one covered....”
“The blog's name Ardent Student is due the fact that I acknowledge that I am an utter learning geek - what the British call an "anorak".”
“Perhaps the term was intended to describe not my clothing but my personality; something just short of "anorak".”
Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph
“It must be something to do with our climate, whose low grey skies encourage a certain kind of anorak to spend hours burrowing in libraries.”
“The IT sector's "anorak" image is a turnoff and women are needed to plug the skills gap - Comment: Top 10 cool IT people revealed”
“Some believe, for all its faults, that the former committee system did not just allow elected members to make real decisions it also equipped them with the kind of anorak specialist knowledge that could later be put to good use when taking up cases on behalf of constituents.”
“Train spotting may have acquired an "anorak" tag but it was once one of Britain's most popular hobbies.”
“My hobby (pastime, interest, absorption, obsession, certifiability, whatever) is the history and development of London, but that started from collecting bus numbers (the next one who says "anorak" is history) but becoming more interested in where the buses went, then why.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘anorak’.
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Loanwords
Since English is littered with loanwords, everything could conceivably end up here. But there is a distinct feeling associated with these.. maybe they're young additions to the English language; I ...
iceberg, fjord, firth, abbey, abyss, anorak, apartheid, assassin, avalanche, avocado, balaclava, banana and 104 more...
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UK - slang
chin wag, arse about, bollock, starkers, sweet Fanny Adams, skive, shufti, codswallop, rhyming slang, bollocks, nookie, skew-whiff and 208 more...
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UK Usage - Find US Equivalent
All these terms have a (different) American English equivalent. Wonder if you can identify them?
abridgement (abri..., accoutrement, accoutre, acknowledgement (..., opposite, advert, adaptor, adapter, sticking plaster, advertise, adviser (advisor ..., adze, aesthete and 1196 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
abaca, abdominal, abrasive, absorbent, absorber, accelerator, accessory, account book, accumulator, acebutolol, acetaldehyde, acetamide and 4515 more...
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The Nerd
All the names any successful nerd can ever hope to be called.
dweeb, dork, drip, oaf, egghead, geek, twit, goofball, loser, swot, wimp, bonehead and 5 more...
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*CVk
...where C is any consonant and V is any vowel.
trek, flak, anorak, fartlek, lek, beatnik, realpolitik, amok, mukluk, Wordnik, springbok, kulak and 3 more...
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window dressing
chemise, gossamer, tweed, pleat, fold, cuff, button, shirttails, ascot, cummerbund, velvet, silk and 104 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, A
abaculus, abacus, abaft, abarticular, abbreviate, abeyance, abiding, anthocyanin, antemeridian, arcane, adjure, adduce and 418 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Infinite Jest
Words taken from Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
prorector, monograph, post-fourier, snuffle, rototremble, creatus, enfilade, subanimalistic, balletic, espadrilles, leonine, cirri and 1153 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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bobfet1's Words
anathema, schadenfreude, sturm und drang, dadaism, serendipitous, obfuscate, kibosh, salacious, misogyny, kismet, madrasah, circumlocute and 129 more...
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words
diplopic, dolorous, farrago, surety, scuttlebutt, Arabesque, infarct, neurasthenia, lambent, expurge, univocal, simper and 395 more...
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Loan words from Inuktitut
anorak, igloo, kayak, umiak, nasaaq, kabloona, piblokto, nunatak, pingo
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The Amulet of Samarkand
Words and phrases from Jonathan Stroud's The Amulet of Samarkand.
flunky, provenance, pare, rabbit in a covert, short shrift, bunker, trainers, tatty, lob, injunction, doss, bluster and 193 more...
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Field Mass
for the same
fanon, armet, wether, filibuster, shadoof, shabrack, mai, sainfoin, sand-crack, panoply, guerdon, flunky and 234 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for anorak.

BrainyBabe Many would consider it the same garment as a parka. Dec 22, 2008
BrainyBabe A more current transliteration would be "anoraaq". Dec 22, 2008