folk.
A people; a tribe or nation; the inhabitants of a region, especially the native inhabitants.
Meaning & usage
A people; a tribe or nation; the inhabitants of a region, especially the native inhabitants.
People, persons.
There were a lot of folk in the streets.
Young folk, old folk, everybody come / To our little Sunday School, and have a lot of fun.
One’s relatives, especially one’s parents.
I need to call my folks back home.
Ellipsis of folk music.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *fulkazder. Proto-Germanic *fulką Proto-West Germanic *folk Old English folc Middle English folk English folk From Middle English folk, from Old English folc, from Proto-West Germanic *folk, from Proto-Germanic *fulką, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁-gós, from *pleh₁- (“to fill”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Foulk, West Frisian folk, Dutch volk, German Low German and German Volk, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish folk, Faroese and Icelandic fólk. Doublet of volk.
Of or pertaining to the inhabitants of a land, their culture, tradition, or history.
Of or pertaining to common people as opposed to ruling classes or elites.
Of or related to local building materials and styles.
Believed or transmitted by the common people; not academically or ideologically correct or rigorous.
folk psychology; folk linguistics
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *fulkazder. Proto-Germanic *fulką Proto-West Germanic *folk Old English folc Middle English folk English folk From Middle English folk, from Old English folc, from Proto-West Germanic *folk, from Proto-Germanic *fulką, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁-gós, from *pleh₁- (“to fill”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Foulk, West Frisian folk, Dutch volk, German Low German and German Volk, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish folk, Faroese and Icelandic fólk. Doublet of volk.
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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.