Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

cup of joe

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: 4.61 in modern English

Syllables
cup of joe
IPA
22
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
1
Syllables
7
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A cup of coffee.

American usage

noun

One’s personal preference.

Example Sentences

Etymology

Uncertain. * Possibly a shortening of "cup of jamoke", from java + mocha: this origin was given in a military officer's manual from 1931, around when the term first appeared. * Alternatively, perhaps a use of joe (“fellow, guy”), signifying that coffee was the drink of the common man. * Another theory suggests that US soldiers in World War I (1914-1918) referred to a serving of instant coffee made by the G. Washington Coffee Refining Company (founded in 1910) as a "cup of George", and that the common abbreviation of the name "George" ("Geo.") was then read as "Joe". * Another theory derives the term from Josephus Daniels (1862-1948), the Secretary of the U.S. Navy who abolished the officers' wine mess and thus made coffee the strongest drink available on ships. Snopes considers this unlikely because it says there is no attestation of the phrase "cup of joe" until 1930, 16 years after the 1914 order banning the wine mess. Confusingly, some other sources consider the Daniels derivation unlikely for the opposite reason: they say "cup of joe" predates the order.

Usage

Inflected Forms

cups of joe (plural) cup o' joe (alternative) cuppa joe (alternative)

Synonyms

cup of coffee cup of tea

Questions

What does cup of joe mean?
A cup of coffee.
Where does cup of joe come from?
Uncertain. * Possibly a shortening of "cup of jamoke", from java + mocha: this origin was given in a military officer's manual from 1931, around when the term first appeared. * Alternatively, perhaps a use of joe (“fellow, guy”), signifying that coffee was the drink of the common man. * Another theory suggests that US soldiers in World War I (1914-1918) referred to a serving of instant coffee made by the G. Washington Coffee Refining Company (founded in 1910) as a "cup of George", and that the common abbreviation of the name "George" ("Geo.") was then read as "Joe". * Another theory derives the term from Josephus Daniels (1862-1948), the Secretary of the U.S. Navy who abolished the officers' wine mess and thus made coffee the strongest drink available on ships. Snopes considers this unlikely because it says there is no attestation of the phrase "cup of joe" until 1930, 16 years after the 1914 order banning the wine mess. Confusingly, some other sources consider the Daniels derivation unlikely for the opposite reason: they say "cup of joe" predates the order.

How to pronounce cup of joe

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “cup of joe”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
  3. Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “cup of joe”.
  4. Repeat and practice — Say “cup of joe” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.