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jest

verb

Simple meaning

To tell a joke.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

jehst
US recording
IPA pronunciation (US)

dʒɛst

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

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. To tell a joke; to talk in a playful manner; to make fun of something or someone.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced
Frequency
Uncommon

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To tell a joke; to talk in a playful manner; to make fun of something or someone.

Used this way, jest is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. Keep it for friendly, informal settings.

Emotional tone
Positive
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Playful
Usage feel
Playful and informal

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

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • jesternounInflected form

    A professional clown employed to entertain a king or nobleman in the Middle Ages.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • jest atverbCompound term

    Subject to laughter or ridicule.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API (CC BY-SA 3.0). Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.