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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

Joe.

A diminutive of the male given names Joseph, Josiah, Joel, and Josias.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

name/d͡ʒəʊ/Received-Pronunciation/d͡ʒoʊ/General-American
  1. A diminutive of the male given names Joseph, Josiah, Joel, and Josias.

  2. Alternative form of Jo: a diminutive of various female given names.

    alt-of · alternative · rare
  3. A surname.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Biblical Hebrew הוֹסִיף (hosíf)der. Biblical Hebrew יוֹסֵףbor. Middle English Ioseph English Josephclip. English Joelclip. English Josiahclip. English Josiasclip. English Joe Short form (diminutive form) of various names beginning with Jo..., particularly the male names Joseph and, less often, Joel, Josiah and Josias. The spelling Jo is used more often for diminutives of similar female names.

noun/d͡ʒəʊ/Received-Pronunciation/d͡ʒoʊ/General-American
  1. A male; a guy; a fellow.

    informal
    I'm just an ordinary Joe.
  2. Synonym of Joe Miller (“an old joke”).

    archaic · slang
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Biblical Hebrew הוֹסִיף (hosíf)der. Biblical Hebrew יוֹסֵףbor. Middle English Ioseph English Josephclip. English Joelclip. English Josiahclip. English Josiasclip. English Joe Short form (diminutive form) of various names beginning with Jo..., particularly the male names Joseph and, less often, Joel, Josiah and Josias. The spelling Jo is used more often for diminutives of similar female names.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.