Yokel
//ˈjoʊ.kəl// noun, slang
noun, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A person from or living in the countryside, viewed as being unsophisticated or naive. derogatory, slang
"They love the scenery near their summer home, but have no desire to mix with the local yokels."
- 2 a person who is not very intelligent or interested in culture wordnet
Example
More examples"They love the scenery near their summer home, but have no desire to mix with the local yokels."
Etymology
First use appears c. 1812, possibly from dialectal German Jokel, diminutive of Jakob, cf. Yankee (“little John”) and jacquerie (“a peasant uprising”). Alternatively, from dialectal English yokel, yuckle (“a European green woodpecker”), itself probably a variant of hickwall.
Related phrases
More for "yokel"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.