joke
/ˈd͡ʒoʊ̯k/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.68 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Something said or done for amusement, not in seriousness.
Example Sentences
- "Or witty joke our airy senses moves / To pleasant laughter."
- "It was a joke!"
- "Your effort at cleaning your room is a joke."
- "The president was a joke."
- "The other wheel on the tender of the L.N.W.R. engines operated the tender brake, and this was always rather a joke. Sometimes it operated with good results and on other occasions it did not."
- "The final exam was a joke."
Etymology
From Latin iocus (“joke, jest, pastime”), from Proto-Italic *jokos (“word, (playful?) saying”), from Proto-Indo-European *yokos (“word, utterance”), from ultimate root Proto-Indo-European *yek- (“to speak, utter”) (of which distant cognates include Proto-Celtic *yextis (“language”) (Breton yezh (“language”) and Welsh iaith (“language”)) and German Beichte (“confession”)). Cognate with French jeu, Italian gioco, Portuguese jogo, Spanish juego, Romanian joc, English Yule, Danish Jule, Norwegian Bokmål Jul, Swedish Jul, and Norwegian Nynorsk jol.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *yek-, *jokos, *yokos
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈd͡ʒoʊ̯k/
- British English: /ˈd͡ʒəʊ̯k/