VocabauraVOCABAURA

folk

noun · adjective

Simple meaning

People in general; also traditional music or culture of ordinary people.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

fohk
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈfoʊk

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. collective pluralusually as folks

    One's relatives, especially one's parents.

  2. collective plural

    People, persons.

  3. People in general (often used in the plural)

  4. A social division of (usually preliterate) people

  5. People descended from a common ancestor

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

adjective

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

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

  3. Believed or transmitted by the common people; not academically or ideologically correct or rigorous.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
General English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (collective plural, usually as folks) One's relatives, especially one's parents.

Used this way, folk is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use folk

  • “They're just country folk.”noun

Share your sentence

Write your own example sentence using “folk”. We review each one before it appears.

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

folk musicfolk artfolk songfolk dancefolk medicinefolk taleamerican folkblack folk

Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • folksnounPlural form

    Your parents.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • folk dancingnounCompound term

    A style of dancing that originated among ordinary people (not in the royal courts).

  • folk etymologynounCompound term

    A popular but erroneous etymology.

  • folk musicnounCompound term

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

  • folk poetnounCompound term

    A folk writer who composes in verse.

  • folk singernounCompound term

    A singer of folk songs.

  • folk songnounCompound term

    A song that is traditionally sung by the common people of a region and forms part of their culture.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

noun

Sense: one's relatives or especially one's parents

folk musickinsfolkkinfolk

adjective

Sense: of or pertaining to the inhabitants of a land

western

Use This Word

See how this word sounds in a real sentence.

Ask Vocabaura

Understand the word your way.

What Does It Mean Here?

Words can change meaning depending on context.

Use it yourself

Knowing “folk” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.

Know the meaning? Practice using it in a real situation, free, no credits.

Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.