fork.
Any of several types of pronged (tined) tools (physical tools), as follows:
Meaning & usage
Any of several types of pronged (tined) tools (physical tools), as follows: A utensil with spikes used to put solid food into the mouth, or to hold food down while cutting, or for serving food.
Any of several types of pronged (tined) tools (physical tools), as follows: Any of several types of pronged tools for use on farms, in fields, or in the garden or lawn, such as a smaller hand fork for weeding or a larger one for turning over the soil.
Any of several types of pronged (tined) tools (physical tools), as follows: Any of several types of pronged tools for use on farms, in fields, or in the garden or lawn, such as a smaller hand fork for weeding or a larger one for turning over the soil. Such a pronged tool having a long straight handle, generally for two-handed use, as used for digging, lifting, mucking, pitching, etc.
Any of several types of pronged (tined) tools (physical tools), as follows: A tuning fork.
A fork in the road, as follows: An intersection in a road or path where one road is split into two.
A fork in the road, as follows: A decision point.
A point where a waterway, such as a river or other stream, splits and flows into two (or more) different directions.
One of the parts into which anything is furcated or divided; a prong; a branch of a stream, a road, etc.; a barbed point, as of an arrow.
a thunderbolt with three forks
this fork of the river dries up during droughts
A point in time where one has to make a decision between two life paths.
A point in time where one has to make a decision between two life paths. Either of the (figurative) paths thus taken.
(software development, content management, data management) A departure from having a single source of truth (SSOT), sometimes intentionally but usually unintentionally. Any of the pieces/versions (of software, content, or data sets) thus created.
(software development, content management, data management) A departure from having a single source of truth (SSOT), sometimes intentionally but usually unintentionally. The launch of one or more separate software development efforts based upon a modified copy of an existing project, especially in free and open-source software.
(software development, content management, data management) A departure from having a single source of truth (SSOT), sometimes intentionally but usually unintentionally. The launch of one or more separate software development efforts based upon a modified copy of an existing project, especially in free and open-source software. Any of the software projects resulting from the launch of such separate software development efforts based upon a copy of the original project.
LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice.
(software development, content management, data management) A departure from having a single source of truth (SSOT), sometimes intentionally but usually unintentionally. The splitting of the coverage of a topic (within a corpus of content) into two or more pieces.
A content fork may be intentional (as from a schism about goals) or unintentional (merely from a lack of reorganizing, so far).
(software development, content management, data management) A departure from having a single source of truth (SSOT), sometimes intentionally but usually unintentionally. The splitting of the coverage of a topic (within a corpus of content) into two or more pieces. Any of the pieces/versions of content thus created.
(software development, content management, data management) A departure from having a single source of truth (SSOT), sometimes intentionally but usually unintentionally. A split in a blockchain resulting from protocol disagreements, or a branch of the blockchain resulting from such a split.
The simultaneous attack of two adversary pieces with one single attacking piece (especially a knight).
The crotch.
A forklift.
Are you qualified to drive a fork?
Either of the blades of a forklift (or, in plural, the set of blades), on which the goods to be raised are loaded.
Get those forks tilted back more or you're gonna lose that pallet!
In a bicycle or motorcycle, the portion of the frameset holding the front wheel, allowing the rider to steer and balance, also called front fork.
The fork can be equipped with a suspension on mountain bikes.
The upper front brow of a saddle bow, connected in the tree by the two saddle bars to the cantle on the other end.
A set of data associated with an individual file in some file systems.
resource fork
A gallows.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English forke (“digging fork”), from Old English force, forca (“forked instrument used to torture”), from Proto-West Germanic *furkō (“fork”), from Latin furca (“pitchfork, forked stake; gallows, beam, stake, support post, yoke”), of uncertain origin. The Middle English word was later reinforced by Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French forque (= Old French forche whence French fourche), also from the Latin. Doublet of fourche and furcate. Cognate also with North Frisian forck (“fork”), Dutch vork (“fork”), Danish fork (“fork”), German Forke (“pitchfork”). Displaced native gafol, ġeafel, ġeafle (“fork”), from Old English. In its primary sense of “fork”, Latin furca appears to be derived from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰerk(ʷ)-, *ǵʰerg(ʷ)- (“fork”), although the development of the -c- is difficult to explain. In other senses this derivation is unlikely. For these, perhaps it is connected to Proto-Germanic *furkaz, *firkalaz (“stake, stick, pole, post”), from Proto-Indo-European *perg- (“pole, post”). If so, this would relate the word to Old English forclas pl (“bolt”), Old Saxon ferkal (“lock, bolt, bar”), Old Norse forkr (“pole, staff, stick”), Norwegian fork (“stick, bat”), Swedish fork (“pole”).
To divide into two or more branches or copies.
A road, a tree, or a stream forks.
To divide into two or more branches or copies. To spawn a new child process by duplicating the existing process.
To divide into two or more branches or copies. To launch a separate software development effort based upon a modified copy of an existing software project, especially in free and open-source software.
To divide into two or more branches or copies. To create a copy of a distributed version control repository.
To move with a fork (as hay or food).
To apply a fork to.
forking the soil
To kick someone in the crotch.
To shoot into blades, as corn does.
To simultaneously attack two opposing pieces with a single attacking piece.
Euphemistic form of fuck.
They were forking each other in the back room.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English forke (“digging fork”), from Old English force, forca (“forked instrument used to torture”), from Proto-West Germanic *furkō (“fork”), from Latin furca (“pitchfork, forked stake; gallows, beam, stake, support post, yoke”), of uncertain origin. The Middle English word was later reinforced by Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French forque (= Old French forche whence French fourche), also from the Latin. Doublet of fourche and furcate. Cognate also with North Frisian forck (“fork”), Dutch vork (“fork”), Danish fork (“fork”), German Forke (“pitchfork”). Displaced native gafol, ġeafel, ġeafle (“fork”), from Old English. In its primary sense of “fork”, Latin furca appears to be derived from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰerk(ʷ)-, *ǵʰerg(ʷ)- (“fork”), although the development of the -c- is difficult to explain. In other senses this derivation is unlikely. For these, perhaps it is connected to Proto-Germanic *furkaz, *firkalaz (“stake, stick, pole, post”), from Proto-Indo-European *perg- (“pole, post”). If so, this would relate the word to Old English forclas pl (“bolt”), Old Saxon ferkal (“lock, bolt, bar”), Old Norse forkr (“pole, staff, stick”), Norwegian fork (“stick, bat”), Swedish fork (“pole”).
The bottom of a sump into which the water of a mine drains.
Where this word comes from
Ultimately from Etymology 1, above, through use for various things with two or more branches. Attested in this sense from the 18th century.
To bale a shaft dry.
Where this word comes from
Ultimately from Etymology 1, above, through use for various things with two or more branches. Attested in this sense from the 18th century.
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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.