joke

English Online Dictionary. What means joke‎? What does joke mean?

English

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.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d͡ʒəʊk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /d͡ʒoʊk/
• Rhymes: -əʊk

Noun

joke (plural jokes)

1. An amusing story.
2. Something said or done for amusement, not in seriousness.
3. (figuratively) The root cause or main issue, especially an unexpected one
4. (figuratively) A laughably worthless thing or person; a sham.
5. (figuratively) Something that is far easier or far less challenging than expected.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:joke

Coordinate terms

Derived terms

Related terms

• jocular

Collocations

Descendants

• → Danish: joke
• → French: joke
• → Persian: جوک
• → Japanese: ジョーク, → Japanese: 冗句
• → Welsh: jôc

Translations

Verb

joke (third-person singular simple present jokes, present participle joking, simple past and past participle joked)

1. (intransitive) To do or say something for amusement rather than seriously.

2. (intransitive, followed by with) To dupe in a friendly manner for amusement; to mess with, play with.

3. (transitive, dated) To make merry with; to make jokes upon; to rally.

Derived terms

Related terms

• joker

Translations

See also

• jeer
• mock

Anagrams

• ojek

Danish

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English joke.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈd̥jɔwɡ̊]

Noun

joke c (singular definite joken, plural indefinite jokes)

1. joke

Declension

Synonyms

• spøg
• vits
• vittighed

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English joke.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈd̥jɔwɡ̊ə], (imperative) IPA^(key): [ˈd̥jɔwˀɡ̊]

Verb

joke (past tense jokede, past participle joket)

1. joke

Conjugation

Synonyms

• spøge

French

Etymology

From English joke.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dʒok/
• (Quebec) IPA^(key): /dʒoʊk/

Noun

joke f (plural jokes)

1. (North America) joke

Derived terms

• faire une joke