Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

folk devil

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.96 in modern English

Syllables: folk dev-il
IPA

20

Scrabble Score

9

Letters

2

Syllables

8

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A person or type of person blamed by the public for various ills, as during a moral panic.

Example Sentences

"It may be true, as Fred Robinson, a senior researcher at Newcastle University said, "Many people view Mrs. Thatcher as a kind of folk devil."
""Every time things become problematic we start careering towards social causes and pick on a folk devil to attribute all evil.""
"There is always a tendency, in the mainstream as much as the fringes, to blame real or imagined social problems on a folk devil."

Inflected Forms

folk devils (plural)

Synonyms

scapegoat

Questions

What does folk devil mean?: A person or type of person blamed by the public for various ills, as during a moral panic.

How to pronounce folk devil

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