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ribald.

Coarsely, vulgarly, or lewdly amusing; referring to sexual matters in a rude or irreverent way.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈɹɪb.əld/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɹaɪ.bɔld/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɹɪb.əld/General-American/ˈɹaɪ.bɔld/General-American

  1. Coarsely, vulgarly, or lewdly amusing; referring to sexual matters in a rude or irreverent way.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English ribald, from Old French ribaud, ribauld (“rogue, scoundrel”) ( > English ribaud), from Old French riber (“to be licentious”), from Frankish *rīban (“to copulate, be in heat”, literally “to rub”), from Proto-Germanic *wrībaną (“to turn, twist, writhe”), from Proto-Indo-European *werp-, *werb- (“to turn, twist”) + Old French -aud, from Frankish *-wald. Related to Old High German rīban (“to rub”), German reiben (“to rub”), Dutch wrijven (“to rub”). Compare also Old High German hrība (“prostitute”). See also English wrap.

noun/ˈɹɪb.əld/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɹaɪ.bɔld/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɹɪb.əld/General-American/ˈɹaɪ.bɔld/General-American

  1. A person who is filthy or vulgar in nature.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English ribald, from Old French ribaud, ribauld (“rogue, scoundrel”) ( > English ribaud), from Old French riber (“to be licentious”), from Frankish *rīban (“to copulate, be in heat”, literally “to rub”), from Proto-Germanic *wrībaną (“to turn, twist, writhe”), from Proto-Indo-European *werp-, *werb- (“to turn, twist”) + Old French -aud, from Frankish *-wald. Related to Old High German rīban (“to rub”), German reiben (“to rub”), Dutch wrijven (“to rub”). Compare also Old High German hrība (“prostitute”). See also English wrap.

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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.