folk

plural folks · alternative dialectal vok · alternative dialectal volk · alternative dialectal volge · alternative dialectal volke

1. archaiccountableA people; a tribe or nation; the inhabitants of a region, especially the native inhabitants.

   The organization of each folk, as such, sprang mainly from war.

   1878-1880, John Richard Green, History of the English People

   1 more example

   We thus arrive at a most unexpected imbroglio. The French have become a Germanic folk and the Germanic folk have become Gaulish!

   1907, Race Prejudice, Jean Finot, page 251

2. collectivecountablepluraluncountablePeople, persons.

   There were a lot of folk in the streets.

   2 more examples

   Young folk, old folk, everybody come / To our little Sunday School, and have a lot of fun.

   “[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes[…]. And then, when you see [the senders], you probably find that they are the most melancholy old folk with malignant diseases. […]”

   1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC

3. collectivecountablepluraluncountableusuallyOne’s relatives, especially one’s parents.

   I need to call my folks back home.

4. abbreviationcountableellipsisuncountableentertainmentEllipsis of folk music.

alternative dialectal vok · alternative dialectal volk · alternative dialectal volge · alternative dialectal volke

1. not comparableOf or pertaining to the inhabitants of a land, their culture, tradition, or history.
2. not comparableOf or pertaining to common people as opposed to ruling classes or elites.
3. not comparablearchitectureOf or related to local building materials and styles.
4. not comparableBelieved or transmitted by the common people; not academically or ideologically correct or rigorous.

   folk psychology; folk linguistics

   1 more example

   Americans are not libertarians in the Cato Institute sense of the word, but they are folk libertarians in this sense of impulsive behaviour, which is a feature of American life that anyone who wants to govern the United States, Democratic or Republican, has to be aware of.

   2025 April 28, Ross Douthat, Nick Adams, “Condition of America”, in New Left Review, number 152, →ISSN

plural Folks · alternative Vokes

1. A surname.