How do you pronounce woke?

The recorded pronunciation is /woʊk/.

woke

/woʊk/

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.22 in modern English

Syllables: woke
IPA: /woʊk/

Scrabble Score

Letters

Syllables

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Awake: conscious and not asleep.

adj

Alert, aware of what is going on, or well-informed, especially of racial and other social justice issues.

Slang

adj

Holding progressive views or attitudes, principally with regard to social justice.

Derogatory; Slang

adj

Promoting cancel culture, pontification, victim mentality, or virtue signalling.

Derogatory; Slang

noun

A person with progressive views or attitudes.

Countable; Derogatory; Slang

noun

A progressive ideology, in particular with regards to social justice.

Derogatory; Slang; Uncountable

verb

simple past of wake

verb

past participle of wake

Colloquial

Example Sentences

"Waking up is a damn sight harder than going to sleep, but we’ll stay woke up longer."
"If You’re Woke You Dig It [title]"
"I been sleeping all my life. And now that Mr. Garvey done woke me up, I’m gon stay woke. And I’m gon help him wake up other black folk."
"What if there was no niccas / Only master teachers? / I stay woke (dreams dreams)"
"[…] stay woke[,] people of color, / let us occupy this dissent"
"But the cultural conflict between these two post-revolutionary styles — between frat guys and feminist bluestockings, Gamergaters and the diversity police, alt-right provocateurs and “woke” dudebros, the mouthbreathers who poured hate on the all-female “Ghostbusters” and the tastemakers who pretended it was good — is likely here to stay."

Etymology

Shortened from woken or woken up, or derived from dialectal use of woke (past participle of wake). The sense of being aware of social injustice dates to at least the 1930s. The derogatory use has been most commonly used as of the 2020s.

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /woʊk/
British English: /wəʊk/

Usage

Inflected Forms

more woke (comparative) woker (comparative) most woke (superlative) wokest (superlative) wokes (plural)

Derived Forms

dewokify Hollywoke hyperwoke unwoke wokeass wokedom wokefest wokefish wokeish wokeism wokeist Wokeistan

Phrases

dark woke get woke, go broke Great Awokening war on woke woke capitalism woke church woke-free woke-ism

Frequently Paired Words

politically correct right-on

Synonyms

alert awake caffeinated conscious invigorated invigorating lively wakeful wakesome woke aware heedful

Homonyms

woak

Antonyms

unwoke politically incorrect philistine

Rhymes With

broke joke smoke spoke stroke folk oak coke stoke choke soak poke