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Added 9 October 2026

folk

/fəʊk/ noun

In Latin: populus, habitans, vivens Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about folk at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

People in general (often used in the plural).
they're just country folk
A social division of (usually preliterate) people.
People descended from a common ancestor.
his family has lived in Massachusetts since the Mayflower

Origin

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.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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