funk
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A style of music derived from 1960s soul music, with elements of rock and other styles, having a prominent bass guitar, dance-friendly sound.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fuhngkIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfʌŋk
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
uncountablemusic
A style of music derived from 1960s soul music, with elements of rock and other styles, characterized by a prominent bass guitar, dance-friendly sound, a strong emphasis on the downbeat, and much syncopation.
countable
Foul or unpleasant smell, especially body odor.
countable
One who fears or panics; a coward.
countable
Mental depression.
uncountable
A state of fear or panic, especially cowardly.
A state of nervous depression
verb
intransitive
To emit an offensive smell; to stink.
transitive
To envelop with an offensive smell or smoke.
transitive
To frighten; to cause to flinch.
intransitive
To perform funk music.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- General and technical use
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A style of music derived from 1960s soul music, with elements of rock and other styles, characterized by a prominent bass guitar, dance-friendly sound, a strong emphasis on the downbeat, and much syncopation.
Used this way, funk is a reasonably familiar word with a mildly favourable edge. This is a musical use: it is everyday language among musicians and listeners, and specialised outside that.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Positive and appreciative
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Music/performance
- Arts writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use funk
- “She played a lively funk song that made everyone want to dance.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Dugout as a place of safe retreat (when in a funk).
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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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.