What does "in-joke" mean?

Synonym of inside joke (“a joke that is understood or meant to be understood only by certain people who are aware of the details”).

What is a synonym for "in-joke"?

Common synonyms include: inside joke, private joke.

Pronounced //ˈɪnˌd͡ʒəʊk//.

//ˈɪnˌd͡ʒəʊk// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
Synonym of inside joke (“a joke that is understood or meant to be understood only by certain people who are aware of the details”).
"Well, it’s a bit of an in-joke, but Fred has been going to start that diet “tomorrow” for the last few months."
2
a joke that is appreciated only by members of some particular group of people wordnet

"It's sort of a left-wing in-joke."

From in (“having familiarity or involvement with somebody”, adjective) + joke.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.