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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

awk.

Odd; out of order; perverse.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ɔːk/Received-Pronunciation/ɔːk/US/ɑːk/cot-caught-merger

  1. Odd; out of order; perverse.

    obsolete

  2. Wrong, or not commonly used; clumsy; sinister.

    obsolete

  3. Clumsy in performance or manners; not dexterous; awkward.

    UK · dialectal · obsolete

  4. Awkward; uncomfortable.

    US · slang
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep Proto-Indo-European *-o Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó Proto-Indo-European *h₃ekʷ- Proto-Indo-European *h₂époh₃kʷos Proto-Germanic *abuhaz Old Norse ǫfugrder. Middle English awke English awk From Middle English awke, from Old Norse ǫfugr, ǫfigr, afigr (“turned backwards”) (whence Danish avet (“backwards”), Swedish avig (“turned backwards”)), from Proto-Germanic *abuhaz. Cognate with German äbich, Gothic 𐌹𐌱𐌿𐌺𐍃 (ibuks, “turned back”). Akin to Sanskrit अपाच् (apāc, “turned away”). Compare dialectal Danish ave (“to turn”), Dutch averechts (“opposite, backwards, contrary”), Icelandic öfga (“to reverse”).

adv/ɔːk/Received-Pronunciation/ɔːk/US/ɑːk/cot-caught-merger

  1. Perversely; in the wrong way.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep Proto-Indo-European *-o Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó Proto-Indo-European *h₃ekʷ- Proto-Indo-European *h₂époh₃kʷos Proto-Germanic *abuhaz Old Norse ǫfugrder. Middle English awke English awk From Middle English awke, from Old Norse ǫfugr, ǫfigr, afigr (“turned backwards”) (whence Danish avet (“backwards”), Swedish avig (“turned backwards”)), from Proto-Germanic *abuhaz. Cognate with German äbich, Gothic 𐌹𐌱𐌿𐌺𐍃 (ibuks, “turned back”). Akin to Sanskrit अपाच् (apāc, “turned away”). Compare dialectal Danish ave (“to turn”), Dutch averechts (“opposite, backwards, contrary”), Icelandic öfga (“to reverse”).

name/ɔːk/Received-Pronunciation/ɔːk/US/ɑːk/cot-caught-merger

  1. Alternative letter-case form of AWK.

    alt-of
intj/ɔːk/Received-Pronunciation/ɔːk/US/ɑːk/cot-caught-merger

  1. Alternative spelling of och.

    alt-of · alternative
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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.