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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

prank.

A practical joke or mischievous trick.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/pɹæŋk/General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈpɹʷæŋk]General-American, Received-Pronunciation/pɹaŋk/British, Northern-England, Southern, Standard/pɾaŋk/Scotland, Wales

  1. A practical joke or mischievous trick.

    play a prank
    pull a prank on someone

  2. An evil deed; a malicious trick, an act of cruel deception.

    obsolete
    She played a cruel prank on him.
Where this word comes from

Origin uncertain. Perhaps from Middle English pranken (“to adorn, arrange one's attire”), probably from Middle Dutch pronken, proncken (“to flaunt, make a show, arrange one's attire”), related to German prangen (“to make a show, be resplendent”), Dutch prangen (“to squeeze, press”), Danish pragt (“pomp, splendor”), all from Proto-Germanic *pranganą, *prangijaną, *prag- (“to press, squeeze, thring”), from Proto-Indo-European *brengʰ- (“to press, squeeze”). Or, perhaps ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *brahtaz, similar to Dutch pracht (“splendor”), Swedish prakt (“glory, pomp”) (loaned from Low German). Cognate with Middle Low German prunken (“to flaunt”), German prunken (“to flaunt”), Danish prunke (“to make a show, prank”). Sense of "mischievous act" from earlier verbal sense of "to be crafty or subtle, set in order, adjust". See also prink, prance, prong.

verb/pɹæŋk/General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈpɹʷæŋk]General-American, Received-Pronunciation/pɹaŋk/British, Northern-England, Southern, Standard/pɾaŋk/Scotland, Wales

  1. To perform a practical joke on; to trick and make a fool of someone.

    transitive

  2. To perform a practical joke on; to trick and make a fool of someone. To make a prank call to (someone).

    transitive

  3. To call someone's phone and hang up before they answer, so as to send them a notification (of a missed call) without incurring fees.

    slang · transitive
    Hey man, prank me when you wanna get picked up.
    I don't have your number in my phone; can you prank me?

  4. To adorn in a showy manner; to dress or equip ostentatiously.

    archaic · transitive

  5. To make an ostentatious show.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

Origin uncertain. Perhaps from Middle English pranken (“to adorn, arrange one's attire”), probably from Middle Dutch pronken, proncken (“to flaunt, make a show, arrange one's attire”), related to German prangen (“to make a show, be resplendent”), Dutch prangen (“to squeeze, press”), Danish pragt (“pomp, splendor”), all from Proto-Germanic *pranganą, *prangijaną, *prag- (“to press, squeeze, thring”), from Proto-Indo-European *brengʰ- (“to press, squeeze”). Or, perhaps ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *brahtaz, similar to Dutch pracht (“splendor”), Swedish prakt (“glory, pomp”) (loaned from Low German). Cognate with Middle Low German prunken (“to flaunt”), German prunken (“to flaunt”), Danish prunke (“to make a show, prank”). Sense of "mischievous act" from earlier verbal sense of "to be crafty or subtle, set in order, adjust". See also prink, prance, prong.

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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.