Link Centre Dictionary

joke

UK/ˈd͡ʒəʊ̯k/ US/ˈd͡ʒɵ̞ʊ̯k/ common
noun (4) verb (2)

noun

1.

a humorous anecdote or remark intended to provoke laughter

  • “he told a very funny joke”
  • “he knows a million gags”
  • “thanks for the laugh”
  • “he laughed unpleasantly at hisown jest”
  • “even a schoolboy”
Synonyms
2.
3.
4.

a triviality not to be taken seriously

  • “I regarded his campaign for mayor as a joke”

verb

1.

tell a joke; speak humorously

  • “He often jokes even when he appears serious”
Synonyms
2.

act in a funny or teasing way

Synonyms

Origin

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.

Phrases

  • all jokes aside
  • bad joke
  • beyond a joke
  • blonde joke
  • brick joke
  • brown joke
  • dad joke
  • dick joke
  • joke around
  • joke it up
  • joke up
  • joking relationship

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

See also

Part of

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.