Crinklier

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. having a greater degree of surface irregularity or waviness displaying an enhanced tendency to feature uneven textures with folds or curls marked by a more obvious presence of creases and ripples in its form
2. Showing a higher amount of small creases and folds across a surface
3. Characterized by an increased number of fine ridges and indentations on an object's exterior

Etymology: "Crinklier" is simply the comparative of "crinkly," so its story is really the story of the base word and the ending that turns it into a comparison. "Crinkly" is built from "crinkle" plus the suffix "-y," which means "having the quality of," so a crinkly surface is one that has crinkles. The "-ier" ending on "crinklier" is the comparative form, the regular way English adjectives ending in "-y" express "more of" a quality. The "-y" ending has a long ancestry. It descends from Old English "-ig," which was attached to nouns to form adjectives, and its distant relatives run back through Proto-Germanic to a Proto-Indo-European root, which is why it appears in so many English words for qualities like "sleepy" or "windy." The base "crinkle" is the frequentative-style word that gives "crinkly" its sense of small, repeated folds.

Synonyms: more crinkled, wrinklier

Antonyms: smoother, flatter