What does Folk mean?
Definitions for Folk
foʊkfolk
This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word Folk.
Princeton's WordNet
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"
tribe, folknoun
a social division of (usually preliterate) people
family, family line, folk, kinfolk, kinsfolk, sept, phratrynoun
people descended from a common ancestor
"his family has lived in Massachusetts since the Mayflower"
folk music, ethnic music, folknoun
the traditional and typically anonymous music that is an expression of the life of people in a community
Wiktionary
folknoun
A grouping of smaller peoples or tribes as a nation.
folknoun
The inhabitants of a region especially the native inhabitants.
folknoun
One's relatives especially one's parents.
folknoun
Folk music.
folknoun
People in general.
folknoun
A particular group of people.
folkadjective
Of or pertaining to the inhabitants of a land, their culture, tradition, or history.
folkadjective
Of or pertaining to common people as opposed to ruling classes or elites.
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 Dictionary
FOLKnoun
Etymology: folc, Saxon; volk, Dutch.
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.Thou shalt judge the folk righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Psalm lvii. 4.
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.
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.
ChatGPT
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 Dictionary
Folk
alt. of Folks
Wikidata
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 Dictionary
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 Resources
FOLK
What does FOLK stand for? -- Explore the various meanings for the FOLK acronym on the Abbreviations.com website.
Surnames Frequency by Census Records
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
British National Corpus
Spoken Corpus Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'Folk' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #4616
Written Corpus Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'Folk' in Written Corpus Frequency: #2391
Nouns Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'Folk' in Nouns Frequency: #1540
Numerology
Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of Folk in Chaldean Numerology is: 2
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of Folk in Pythagorean Numerology is: 8
Examples of Folk in a Sentence
Some folk want their luck buttered.
I know that part of being in the spotlight is that people might invade your privacy and have opinions on it, but it's bizarre that normal folk are allowed to display such hate and opinions on a part of my life that I'm not putting out there, it's a strange side of fame that you're allowed to be torn apart by thousands of people even though you didn't put that piece of you out there.
It was darn nigh impossible for women in rock in the 70s. There wasn't a mold if you were a woman and you were in the entertainment in the 70s. You were probably a disco diva or a folk singer, or simply ornamental. Radio would play only one woman per hour.
The only really happy folk are married women and single men.
One reason to carry a firearm is to protect yourself from the violent behavior of anti-gun folk.
Popularity rank by frequency of use
References
Translations for Folk
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
- قومArabic
- наро́дBelarusian
- folkemusikDanish
- Volk, LeuteGerman
- λαϊκήGreek
- popularSpanish
- قومیتPersian
- populaire, peupleFrench
- folkWestern Frisian
- लोकHindi
- ժողովուրդArmenian
- autoctono, gente, abitante, popolare, popoloItalian
- עממיHebrew
- フォークJapanese
- folk, populus, vivens, habitansLatin
- volkDutch
- folk, befolkningNorwegian
- povoPortuguese
- народ, народныйRussian
- folkSwedish
- நாட்டுப்புறTamil
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Translation
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