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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

poker.

A metal rod, generally of wrought iron, for adjusting the burning logs or coals in a fire; a firestick.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈpoʊkɚ/General-American/ˈpəʊkə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpəʉkə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɐʉkə/New-Zealand
  1. A metal rod, generally of wrought iron, for adjusting the burning logs or coals in a fire; a firestick.

  2. A tool like a soldering iron for making poker drawings.

    historical
  3. One who pokes.

  4. A kind of duck, the pochard.

  5. A knife.

    Multicultural-London-English · slang
  6. A bedel (who carries a silver mace).

    UK · obsolete · slang
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree English poke Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere English -er English poker From poke + -er.

verb/ˈpoʊkɚ/General-American/ˈpəʊkə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpəʉkə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɐʉkə/New-Zealand
  1. To poke with a utensil such as a poker or needle.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree English poke Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere English -er English poker From poke + -er.

noun/ˈpoʊkɚ/General-American/ˈpəʊkə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpəʉkə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɐʉkə/New-Zealand
  1. Any of various card games in which, following each of one or more rounds of dealing or revealing cards, the players in sequence make tactical bets or drop out, the bets forming a pool to be taken either by the sole remaining player or, after all rounds and bets have been completed, by those remaining players who hold a superior hand according to a standard ranking of hand values for the game.

    countable · uncountable
  2. All the four cards of the same rank.

    countable · uncountable
  3. The scoring of four goals by a player in one match.

    countable · rare · uncountable
Where this word comes from

American English, perhaps from first element of German Pochspiel, from German pochen, perhaps from French poque. First appeared in the 19th century.

verb/ˈpoʊkɚ/General-American/ˈpəʊkə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpəʉkə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɐʉkə/New-Zealand
  1. To play poker.

Where this word comes from

American English, perhaps from first element of German Pochspiel, from German pochen, perhaps from French poque. First appeared in the 19th century.

noun/ˈpoʊkɚ/General-American/ˈpəʊkə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpəʉkə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɐʉkə/New-Zealand
  1. Any imagined frightful object, especially one supposed to haunt the darkness; a bugbear.

    US · colloquial
Where this word comes from

Compare Danish pokker (“the deuce, devil”), and English puck.

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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.