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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

OK.

Endorsement; approval; acceptance; acquiescence.

2 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˌəʊˈkeɪ/Received-Pronunciation/ˌoʊˈkeɪ/General-American/əˈkeɪ/
  1. Endorsement; approval; acceptance; acquiescence.

    We can start as soon as we get the OK.
Where this word comes from

Origin disputed. Wikipedia lists many possible etymologies, of which the most widely accepted is that it is an abbreviation of oll/orl korrect, a comical spelling of all correct, which first appeared in print in The Boston Morning Post on March 23, 1839, as part of a fad for similar fanciful abbreviations in the United States during the late 1830s. The expression became popular through its use in the presidential campaign of Martin Van Buren in 1840, who was nicknamed Old Kinderhook, and then slowly acquired other meanings. The Choctaw word oke, okeh (“it is so”), common in Choctaw translations of the Bible, could also explain OK's variety of affirmative definitions. Additionally, okeh was the most common etymology of okay in dictionaries until the 1960s, and linguistically predates Boston's O.K.. However, this theory suffers from the fact that the Choctaw language was relatively obscure and generally spoken (sometimes in a pidgin form) mainly with African-American slaves.

verb/ˌəʊˈkeɪ/Received-Pronunciation/ˌoʊˈkeɪ/General-American/əˈkeɪ/
  1. To approve; to accept; to acquiesce to.

    transitive
    I don't want to OK this amount of money.
    I'll need to OK that with my boss.
  2. To confirm by activating a button marked OK.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Origin disputed. Wikipedia lists many possible etymologies, of which the most widely accepted is that it is an abbreviation of oll/orl korrect, a comical spelling of all correct, which first appeared in print in The Boston Morning Post on March 23, 1839, as part of a fad for similar fanciful abbreviations in the United States during the late 1830s. The expression became popular through its use in the presidential campaign of Martin Van Buren in 1840, who was nicknamed Old Kinderhook, and then slowly acquired other meanings. The Choctaw word oke, okeh (“it is so”), common in Choctaw translations of the Bible, could also explain OK's variety of affirmative definitions. Additionally, okeh was the most common etymology of okay in dictionaries until the 1960s, and linguistically predates Boston's O.K.. However, this theory suffers from the fact that the Choctaw language was relatively obscure and generally spoken (sometimes in a pidgin form) mainly with African-American slaves.

adj/ˌəʊˈkeɪ/Received-Pronunciation/ˌoʊˈkeɪ/General-American/əˈkeɪ/
  1. All right, acceptable, permitted.

    Is it OK if I spend the night?
  2. Satisfactory, reasonably good; not exceptional.

    The soup was OK, but the dessert was excellent.
  3. Satisfied (with); willing to accept a state of affairs.

  4. In good health or a good emotional state.

    He's not feeling well now, but he should be OK after some rest.
    Are you OK?
Where this word comes from

Origin disputed. Wikipedia lists many possible etymologies, of which the most widely accepted is that it is an abbreviation of oll/orl korrect, a comical spelling of all correct, which first appeared in print in The Boston Morning Post on March 23, 1839, as part of a fad for similar fanciful abbreviations in the United States during the late 1830s. The expression became popular through its use in the presidential campaign of Martin Van Buren in 1840, who was nicknamed Old Kinderhook, and then slowly acquired other meanings. The Choctaw word oke, okeh (“it is so”), common in Choctaw translations of the Bible, could also explain OK's variety of affirmative definitions. Additionally, okeh was the most common etymology of okay in dictionaries until the 1960s, and linguistically predates Boston's O.K.. However, this theory suffers from the fact that the Choctaw language was relatively obscure and generally spoken (sometimes in a pidgin form) mainly with African-American slaves.

adv/ˌəʊˈkeɪ/Received-Pronunciation/ˌoʊˈkeɪ/General-American/əˈkeɪ/
  1. Satisfactorily, sufficiently well.

    The team did OK in the playoffs.
Where this word comes from

Origin disputed. Wikipedia lists many possible etymologies, of which the most widely accepted is that it is an abbreviation of oll/orl korrect, a comical spelling of all correct, which first appeared in print in The Boston Morning Post on March 23, 1839, as part of a fad for similar fanciful abbreviations in the United States during the late 1830s. The expression became popular through its use in the presidential campaign of Martin Van Buren in 1840, who was nicknamed Old Kinderhook, and then slowly acquired other meanings. The Choctaw word oke, okeh (“it is so”), common in Choctaw translations of the Bible, could also explain OK's variety of affirmative definitions. Additionally, okeh was the most common etymology of okay in dictionaries until the 1960s, and linguistically predates Boston's O.K.. However, this theory suffers from the fact that the Choctaw language was relatively obscure and generally spoken (sometimes in a pidgin form) mainly with African-American slaves.

intj/ˌəʊˈkeɪ/Received-Pronunciation/ˌoʊˈkeɪ/General-American/əˈkeɪ/
  1. Used to indicate acknowledgement or acceptance.

    I promise to give it back. – OK.
    Let's meet again this afternoon. – OK.
  2. Used to dismiss a dialog box or confirm a prompt.

  3. Used to introduce a sentence in order to draw attention to the importance of what is being said.

    OK, I'm thinking of a number…
  4. Used in turn-taking, serving as a request to the speaker to grant the turn to the interrupter.

    You always do this to me! When we were at your mother’s, you said that… – OK, OK, …
  5. Used to sarcastically or sardonically indicate agreement with the previous statement.

Where this word comes from

Origin disputed. Wikipedia lists many possible etymologies, of which the most widely accepted is that it is an abbreviation of oll/orl korrect, a comical spelling of all correct, which first appeared in print in The Boston Morning Post on March 23, 1839, as part of a fad for similar fanciful abbreviations in the United States during the late 1830s. The expression became popular through its use in the presidential campaign of Martin Van Buren in 1840, who was nicknamed Old Kinderhook, and then slowly acquired other meanings. The Choctaw word oke, okeh (“it is so”), common in Choctaw translations of the Bible, could also explain OK's variety of affirmative definitions. Additionally, okeh was the most common etymology of okay in dictionaries until the 1960s, and linguistically predates Boston's O.K.. However, this theory suffers from the fact that the Choctaw language was relatively obscure and generally spoken (sometimes in a pidgin form) mainly with African-American slaves.

noun/ˌəʊˈkeɪ/Received-Pronunciation/ˌoʊˈkeɪ/General-American/əˈkeɪ/
  1. Karaoke.

    Hong-Kong · no-plural
Where this word comes from

Possibly a shortening of Chinese 卡拉OK.

name/ˌəʊˈkeɪ/Received-Pronunciation/ˌoʊˈkeɪ/General-American/əˈkeɪ/
  1. Abbreviation of Oklahoma: a state of the United States.

    abbreviation · alt-of
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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.