Definitions for folk
foʊkfolk

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. folk, folks, common peoplenoun

   people in general (often used in the plural)

   "they're just country folk"; "folks around here drink moonshine"; "the common people determine the group character and preserve its customs from one generation to the next"

2. tribe, folknoun

   a social division of (usually preliterate) people

3. family, family line, folk, kinfolk, kinsfolk, sept, phratrynoun

   people descended from a common ancestor

   "his family has lived in Massachusetts since the Mayflower"

4. folk music, ethnic music, folknoun

   the traditional and typically anonymous music that is an expression of the life of people in a community

WiktionaryRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

1. folknoun

   A grouping of smaller peoples or tribes as a nation.

2. folknoun

   The inhabitants of a region especially the native inhabitants.

3. folknoun

   One's relatives especially one's parents.

4. folknoun

   Folk music.

5. folknoun

   People in general.

6. folknoun

   A particular group of people.

7. folkadjective

   Of or pertaining to the inhabitants of a land, their culture, tradition, or history.

8. folkadjective

   Of or pertaining to common people as opposed to ruling classes or elites.

9. Etymology: folc, from fulkan (compare West Frisian folk, volk and Volk), from pl̥h₁-go (compare ôl 'track', pulkas 'crowd', plŭkŭ 'army division', plog 'barn, heap'). Related to follow.

Samuel Johnson's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. FOLKnoun

   Etymology: folc, Saxon; volk, Dutch.

   1. People, in familiar language.

   Never troubling him, either with asking questions, or finding fault with his melancholy, but rather fitting to his dolor dolorous discourses of their own and other folks misfortune. Philip Sidney.

   Dorilaus having married his sister, had his marriage in short time blest, for so are folk wont to say, how unhappy soever the children after grow, with a son. Philip Sidney.

   When with greatest art he spoke,
   You’d think he talk’d like other folk;
   For all a rhetorician’s rules
   Teach nothing but to name his tools. Hudibras, p. i.

   2. Nations; mankind.

   Thou shalt judge the folk righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Psalm lvii. 4.

   3. Any kind of people as discriminated from others.

   The river thrice hath flow’d, no ebb between;
   And the old folk, time’s doting chronicles,
   Say it did so a little time before. William Shakespeare.

   Anger is a kind of baseness; as it appears well in the weakness of children, women, old folks, and sick folks. Francis Bacon, Ess.

   4. It is now used only in familiar or burlesque language.

   Old good man Dobson of the green,
   Remembers he the tree has seen,
   And goes with folks to shew the sight. Jonathan Swift.

   He walk’d, and wore a threadbare cloak;
   He din’d and supp’d at charge of other folk. Jonathan Swift.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. folk

   Folk generally refers to the traditional culture, customs, and practices of a particular group of people or community. This term is often used to describe things that are rooted in or represent the shared heritage, knowledge, experiences, and traditions of everyday people, passed down from generation to generation. The term can be applied to various aspects like folk music, folk dance, folk tales or folk art.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

1. Folk

   alt. of Folks

WikidataRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Folk

   The English word Folk is derived from a Germanic noun, *fulka meaning "people" or "army". The English word folk has cognates in most of the other Germanic languages. Folk may be a Germanic root that is unique to the Germanic languages, although Latin vulgus, "the common people", has been suggested as a possible cognate.

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:4.0 / 1 vote

1. Folk

   fōk, n. people, collectively or distributively: a nation or race (rarely in pl.): (arch.) the people, commons: (pl.) those of one's own family, relations (coll.):—generally used in pl. Folk or Folks (fōks).—ns. Folke′thing, the lower house of the Danish parliament or Rigsdag; Folk′land, among the Anglo-Saxons, public land as distinguished from boc-land (bookland)—i.e. land granted to private persons by a written charter; Folk′lore, a department of the study of antiquities or archæology, embracing everything relating to ancient observances and customs, to the notions, beliefs, traditions, superstitions, and prejudices of the common people—the science which treats of the survivals of archaic beliefs and customs in modern ages (the name Folklore was first suggested by W. J. Thoms—'Ambrose Merton'—in the Athenæum, August 22, 1846); Folk′lorist, one who studies folklore; Folk′mote, an assembly of the people among the Anglo-Saxons; Folk′-right, the common law or right of the people; Folk′-song, any song or ballad originating among the people and traditionally handed down by them: a song written in imitation of such; Folk′-speech, the dialect of the common people of a country, in which ancient idioms are embedded; Folk′-tale, a popular story handed down by oral tradition from a more or less remote antiquity. [A.S. folc; Ice. fólk; Ger. volk.]

Suggested ResourcesRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. FOLK

   What does FOLK stand for? -- Explore the various meanings for the FOLK acronym on the Abbreviations.com website.

Surnames Frequency by Census RecordsRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. FOLK

   According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Folk is ranked #5778 in terms of the most common surnames in America.
   
   The Folk surname appeared 5,996 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 2 would have the surname Folk.
   
   82.7% or 4,959 total occurrences were White.
   12.3% or 739 total occurrences were Black.
   1.8% or 113 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
   1.7% or 105 total occurrences were of two or more races.
   1% or 61 total occurrences were Asian.
   0.3% or 19 total occurrences were American Indian or Alaskan Native.

Matched Categories

1. • Lineage
   • People
   • Popular Music
   • Social Group

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'folk' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #4616

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'folk' in Written Corpus Frequency: #2391

3. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'folk' in Nouns Frequency: #1540

How to pronounce folk?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say folk in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of folk in Chaldean Numerology is: 2

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of folk in Pythagorean Numerology is: 8

Examples of folk in a Sentence

1. Victor Chiiba:

   There is a definite increase in the exploitation of the forest by the rural folk because of the poor rains, there's a market for charcoal so those who have not reaped (a good harvest) are increasingly turning to other activities to make an income.

2. Emmylou Harris:

   I was a folk singer who became totally over the edge with country music. I found my voice and style working with Gram Parsons. I learned how to listen to George Jones records and the Louvin Brothers.

3. Paul. F. Meekin:

   Everyone dreams, but not all equally. Those who dream at night in the misty recesses of their mind, often wake to find that it was unfulfilled passion: but day dreamers are dangerous folk, for they may open their eyes, to make dreams possible.

4. Peter Guralnick:

   People have embraced the music for 65 years, and they've embraced the people who made the music. But they don't necessarily know where the music came from, or that it came from this little storefront studio, or that it was energized by this driving vision by a man who was original in his own way as any of the American folk heroes, sam Phillips' vision was no less than any of highly original artists.

5. Henry Louis Mencken:

   The only really happy folk are married women and single men.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=folk
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Folk
3. ^ Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
   https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=folk
4. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
5. ^ Webster Dictionary
   https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/folk
6. ^ Wikidata
   https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=folk
7. ^ Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
   https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37683/37683-h/37683-h.htm#:~:text=folk
8. ^ Surnames Frequency by Census Records
   https://www.census.gov/topics/population/genealogy/data/2010_surnames.html