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joke

noun
/ˈd͡ʒəʊ̯k/UK/ˈd͡ʒoʊ̯k/US/ˈd͡ʒəʉ̯k/

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.

  1. derived from *yek-✻
  2. derived from *yokos✻
  3. derived from *jokos✻

Definitions

  1. An amusing story.

    • Or witty joke our airy senses moves / To pleasant laughter.

  2. Something said or done for amusement, not in seriousness.

    • It was a joke!

  3. A laughably worthless thing or person

    A laughably worthless thing or person; a sham.

    • Your effort at cleaning your room is a joke.
    • The president was a joke.
    • The other wheel on the tender of the L.N.W.R. engines operated the tender brake, and this was always rather a joke. Sometimes it operated with good results and on other occasions it did not.
  4. ›+ 4 more definitions

    1. Something that is far easier or far less challenging than expected.

      • The final exam was a joke.

    2. To do or say something for amusement rather than seriously.

      • I didn’t mean what I said — I was only joking.

    3. To dupe in a friendly manner for amusement

      To dupe in a friendly manner for amusement; to mess with, play with.

      • Relax, man, I'm just joking with you.

    4. To make merry with

      To make merry with; to make jokes upon; to rally.

      • to joke a comrade
      • He made more than one visit to Oxbridge, where the young fellows were amused by entertaining the old gentleman, and gave parties and breakfasts and fêtes, partly to joke him and partly to do him honour.

The neighborhood

Derived

all jokes aside, antijoke, anti-joke, bad joke, beyond a joke, blonde joke, brick joke, brown joke, dad joke, dial-a-joke, dick joke, dirty joke, fourth wall joke, green joke, half joke, in-joke, inside joke, Irish joke, joke book, jokee, jokefest, jokefic, jokeful, joke Joyce, jokeless, jokelet, jokelike, joke line, jokely, jokeman, jokeproof, jokes aside, joke shop, jokesmith, jokesome, jokester, joke theft, joke thief, jokette, jokey · +29 more

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at joke. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01joke02amusement03entertaining04amusing05funny06unpleasant07pleasant08joking

A definitional loop anchored at joke. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at joke

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA