punk
noun · adjective · verb
Simple meaning
A nonconformist social movement originally associated with punk rock and its fans, combining anarchism and radicalism, usually left-wing.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
puhngkIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpʌŋk
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
A nonconformist social movement originally associated with punk rock and its fans, combining anarchism and radicalism, usually (but not necessarily) left-wing.
A teenager or young adult who is a performer (or enthusiast) of punk rock and a member of the punk youth subculture
A member of the punk social movement; usually anarchist and socially non-conformist although potentially either left-wing or right-wing.
A person who designs or dresses in punk fashion style.
uncountable
Any material used as tinder for lighting fires, such as agaric, dried wood, or touchwood, but especially wood altered by certain fungi.
countable
A utensil for lighting wicks or fuses (such as those of fireworks) resembling stick incense.
adjective
Thuggish, criminal.
uscolloquial
Worthless, contemptible, particularly
Bad, substandard.
Poorly, sickly.
Inexperienced.
Of or concerning punk rock or its associated subculture.
verb
especially with "out"
To give up or concede; to act like a wimp.
transitiveoften with "out" or "up"
To adapt or embellish in the style of the punk movement.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A nonconformist social movement originally associated with punk rock and its fans, combining anarchism and radicalism, usually (but not necessarily) left-wing.
Used this way, punk 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
Nearby words
- punk rocker , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
- touchwood , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use punk
- “The young punk was always causing trouble in the neighborhood.”
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: nonconformist social movement originally associated with punk rock and its fans
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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.