Link Centre Dictionary

OK

UK/ˌəʊˈkeɪ/ US/ˌoʊˈkeɪ/ very common informal
adverb (1) noun (2) adjective (1)

adverb

1.

sentence-initial expression of agreement

Synonyms

noun

1.
2.

an endorsement

  • “they gave us the O.K. to go ahead”
Synonyms

adjective

1.

being satisfactory or in satisfactory condition

  • “an all-right movie”
  • “the passengers were shaken up but are all right”
  • “is everything all right?”
  • “everything”
  • “;”
  • “;”
  • “;”
  • “d have been fine”
Synonyms
Similar

Origin

Origin disputed. Wikipedia lists many possible etymologies, of which the most widely accepted is that it is an abbreviation of oll/orl korrect, a comical spelling of all correct, which first appeared in print in The Boston Morning Post on March 23, 1839, as part of a fad for similar fanciful abbreviations in the United States during the late 1830s. The expression became popular through its use in the presidential campaign of Martin Van Buren in 1840, who was nicknamed Old Kinderhook, and then slowly acquired other meanings. The Choctaw word oke, okeh (“it is so”), common in Choctaw translations of the Bible, could also explain OK's variety of affirmative definitions. Additionally, okeh was the most common etymology of okay in dictionaries until the 1960s, and linguistically predates Boston's O.K.. However, this theory suffers from the fact that the Choctaw language was relatively obscure and generally spoken (sometimes in a pidgin form) mainly with African-American slaves.

Phrases

  • Horn OK Please term derived from OK
  • OK please term derived from OK
  • OK, boomer term derived from OK
  • OK, zoomer term derived from OK
  • oll korrect
  • you OK term derived from OK

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Parts

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.