joke

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Something said or done to make people laugh.

   He told a funny joke at dinner.

2. 2
   verb

   To say funny things, or to say something not seriously.

   Don't worry, I was only joking.

3. 3
   noun

   A person or thing that is too bad to be taken seriously.

   Their security system is a joke.

Common collocations

• bad joke Adjective + noun
• old joke Adjective + noun
• get a joke Verb + noun
• make a joke Verb + noun
• tell a joke Verb + noun
• dark joke Adjective + noun
• private joke Adjective + noun

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.

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