Folk
/fəʊk/ adj, name, noun
adj, name, noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A people; a tribe or nation; the inhabitants of a region, especially the native inhabitants. archaic, countable
"The organization of each folk, as such, sprang mainly from war."
- 2 the traditional and typically anonymous music that is an expression of the life of people in a community wordnet
- 3 People, persons. collective, countable, plural, uncountable
"There were a lot of folk in the streets."
- 4 people in general (often used in the plural) wordnet
- 5 One’s relatives, especially one’s parents. collective, countable, plural, uncountable, usually
"I need to call my folks back home."
Show 3 more definitions
- 6 people descended from a common ancestor wordnet
- 7 Ellipsis of folk music. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, uncountable
- 8 a social division of (usually preliterate) people wordnet
Adjective
- 1 Of or pertaining to the inhabitants of a land, their culture, tradition, or history. not-comparable
- 2 Of or pertaining to common people as opposed to ruling classes or elites. not-comparable
- 3 Of or related to local building materials and styles. not-comparable
- 4 Believed or transmitted by the common people; not academically or ideologically correct or rigorous. not-comparable
"folk psychology; folk linguistics"
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"That folk singer is very popular with people in general."
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English folk, from Old English folc, from Proto-West Germanic *folk, from Proto-Germanic *fulką, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁-gós, from *pleh₁- (“to fill”). Cognate with German Volk, Dutch volk, Swedish folk and Danish folk. Doublet of volk.
Etymology 2
* As a German surname, variant of Volk (“people, tribe”). * As an English surname, variant of Foulk, related to the noun folk, thus cognate with the above.