Joking

  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Joking

Definition: Joking

Joking

Adjective

1. Characterized by jokes and good humor.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "joking" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references)

 

Synonyms: Joking

Synonyms: jesting (adj), jocose (adj), jocular (adj). (additional references)

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Synonyms within Context: Joking

ContextSynonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).

Affirmation

As God is my witness, I must say, indeed, i' faith, let me tell you, why, give me leave to say, marry, you may be sure, I'd have you to know; upon my word, upon my honor; by my troth, egad, I assure you; by jingo, by Jove, by George; troth, seriously, sadly; in sadness, in sober sadness, in truth, in earnest; of a truth, truly, perdy, in all conscience, upon oath; be assured; (belief); yes; (assent); I'll warrant, I'll warrant you, I'll engage, I'll answer for it, I'll be bound, I'll venture to say, I'll take my oath; in fact, forsooth, joking apart; so help me God; not to mince the matter.

Disrespect

Vilipendency, vilification, contumely, affront, dishonor, insult, indignity, outrage, discourtesy; practical joking; scurrility, scoffing, sibilance, hissing, sibilation; irrision; derision; mockery; irony; (ridicule); sarcasm.

Resolution

Adverb: resolutely; Adjective: in earnest, in good earnest; seriously, joking apart, earnestly, heart and soul; on one's mettle; manfully, like a man, with a high hand; with a strong hand; (exertion).

Wit

Phrase: adhibenda est in jocando moderatio; "gentle dullness ever loves a joke"; "leave this keen encounter of our wits"; just joking, just kidding; "surely you jest!".

Adjective: witty, attic; quick-witted, nimble-witted; smart; jocular, jocose, humorous; facetious, waggish, whimsical; kidding, joking, puckish; playful; merry and wise; pleasant, sprightly, light, spirituel, sparkling, epigrammatic, full of point, ben trovato; comic.

Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Joking

English words defined with "joking": apart, asidehumorousnessjocoseness, jocositymerrinesswaggish. (references)
Specialty definitions using "joking": cargo cult programmingHHOJj/jKorkyPriestShoes, storytape monkey. (references)

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Modern Usage: Joking

DomainUsage

Screenplays

You must be joking! Double-0 seven on an island populated exclusively by women (Octopussy; writing credit: George MacDonald Fraser)

No, I'm only joking. I'm not really Brian (Life of Brian; writing credit: Graham Chapman; John Cleese)

You're joking right (Shadow Raiders; writing credit: Christy Marx; Katherine Lawrence)

When I proposed to my wife, she thought I was joking. This face is a curse (Barney Miller; writing credit: Danny Arnold)

He's joking. (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; writing credit: Doreen Spicer)

Lyrics

I don't think the TV was joking (But Anyway; performing artist: Blues Traveler)

Movie/TV Titles

You Must Be Joking! (1965)

Joking Apart (1991)

You Must Be Joking! (1986)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Joking

DomainTitle

Books

  • 'Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!': Adventures of a Curious Character (reference)

  • "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" (reference)

    (more book examples)

  

Theater & Movies

  • Joking Around With the Little Clowns (reference)

    (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Image Slideshow: Joking

Photos:
Joking

More pictures...

Computer Images:
Joking

More pictures...

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Use in Literature: Joking

TitleAuthorQuote

Les Miserables

Hugo, Victor

He was fond of joking, says Fleury de Chaboulon

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Joking

SubjectTopicQuote

Lexicography

Devil's Dictionary

STORY, n. A narrative, commonly untrue. The truth of the stories here following has, however, not been successfully impeached. One evening Mr. Rudolph Block, of New York, found himself seated at dinner alongside Mr. Percival Pollard, the distinguished critic. "Mr. Pollard," said he, "my book, The Biography of a Dead Cow, is published anonymously, but you can hardly be ignorant of its authorship. Yet in reviewing it you speak of it as the work of the Idiot of the Century. Do you think that fair criticism?" "I am very sorry, sir," replied the critic, amiably, "but it did not occur to me that you really might not wish the public to know who wrote it." Mr. W.C. Morrow, who used to live in San Jose, California, was addicted to writing ghost stories which made the reader feel as if a stream of lizards, fresh from the ice, were streaking it up his back and hiding in his hair. San Jose was at that time believed to be haunted by the visible spirit of a noted bandit named Vasquez, who had been hanged there. The town was not very well lighted, and it is putting it mildly to say that San Jose was reluctant to be out o' nights. One particularly dark night two gentlemen were abroad in the loneliest spot within the city limits, talking loudly to keep up their courage, when they came upon Mr. J.J. Owen, a well-known journalist. "Why, Owen," said one, "what brings you here on such a night as this? You told me that this is one of Vasquez' favorite haunts! And you are a believer. Aren't you afraid to be out?" "My dear fellow," the journalist replied with a drear autumnal cadence in his speech, like the moan of a leaf-laden wind, "I am afraid to be in. I have one of Will Morrow's stories in my pocket and I don't dare to go where there is light enough to read it." Rear-Admiral Schley and Representative Charles F. Joy were standing near the Peace Monument, in Washington, discussing the question, Is success a failure? Mr. Joy suddenly broke off in the middle of an eloquent sentence, exclaiming: "Hello! I've heard that band before. Santlemann's, I think." "I don't hear any band," said Schley. "Come to think, I don't either," said Joy; "but I see General Miles coming down the avenue, and that pageant always affects me in the same way as a brass band. One has to scrutinize one's impressions pretty closely, or one will mistake their origin." While the Admiral was digesting this hasty meal of philosophy General Miles passed in review, a spectacle of impressive dignity. When the tail of the seeming procession had passed and the two observers had recovered from the transient blindness caused by its effulgence -- "He seems to be enjoying himself," said the Admiral. "There is nothing," assented Joy, thoughtfully, "that he enjoys one-half so well." The illustrious statesman, Champ Clark, once lived about a mile from the village of Jebigue, in Missouri. One day he rode into town on a favorite mule, and, hitching the beast on the sunny side of a street, in front of a saloon, he went inside in his character of teetotaler, to apprise the barkeeper that wine is a mocker. It was a dreadfully hot day. Pretty soon a neighbor came in and seeing Clark, said: "Champ, it is not right to leave that mule out there in the sun. He'll roast, sure! -- he was smoking as I passed him." "O, he's all right," said Clark, lightly; "he's an inveterate smoker." The neighbor took a lemonade, but shook his head and repeated that it was not right. He was a conspirator. There had been a fire the night before: a stable just around the corner had burned and a number of horses had put on their immortality, among them a young colt, which was roasted to a rich nut-brown. Some of the boys had turned Mr. Clark's mule loose and substituted the mortal part of the colt. Presently another man entered the saloon. "For mercy's sake!" he said, taking it with sugar, "do remove that mule, barkeeper: it smells." "Yes," interposed Clark, "that animal has the best nose in Missouri. But if he doesn't mind, you shouldn't." In the course of human events Mr. Clark went out, and there, apparently, lay the incinerated and shrunken remains of his charger. The boys idd not have any fun out of Mr. Clarke, who looked at the body and, with the non-committal expression to which he owes so much of his political preferment, went away. But walking home late that night he saw his mule standing silent and solemn by the wayside in the misty moonlight. Mentioning the name of Helen Blazes with uncommon emphasis, Mr. Clark took the back track as hard as ever he could hook it, and passed the night in town. General H.H. Wotherspoon, president of the Army War College, has a pet rib-nosed baboon, an animal of uncommon intelligence but imperfectly beautiful. Returning to his apartment one evening, the General was surprised and pained to find Adam (for so the creature is named, the general being a Darwinian) sitting up for him and wearing his master's best uniform coat, epaulettes and all. "You confounded remote ancestor!" thundered the great strategist, "what do you mean by being out of bed after naps? -- and with my coat on!" Adam rose and with a reproachful look got down on all fours in the manner of his kind and, scuffling across the room to a table, returned with a visiting-card: General Barry had called and, judging by an empty champagne bottle and several cigar-stumps, had been hospitably entertained while waiting. The general apologized to his faithful progenitor and retired. The next day he met General Barry, who said: "Spoon, old man, when leaving you last evening I forgot to ask you about those excellent cigars. Where did you get them?" General Wotherspoon did not deign to reply, but walked away. "Pardon me, please," said Barry, moving after him; "I was joking of course. Why, I knew it was not you before I had been in the room fifteen minutes."

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Joking

"Joking" is generally used as a lexical verb (-ing form) -- approximately 96.36% of the time. "Joking" is used about 603 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words
Rank in English
Lexical Verb (-ing form)96.36%58110,898
Noun (singular)1.82%11106,044
Adjective (general or positive)1.32%8124,375
Noun (proper)0.5%3202,518
                    Total100.00%603N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expression: Joking

Expressions using "joking": jesting jocose jocular jocund joking joking apart joking apart! no joking matter. Additional references.

Hypenated Usage

Ending with "joking": half-joking.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Joking

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day

joking

13

joking just

3

club comedy joking just

3

surely you re joking mr feynman

2

around joking

2

i joking only

2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Joking

Language Translations for "joking"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Arabic 

  

‏دعابة (frolic, good humor, good humour, humor, humour, jest, jesting, joke, pleasantries). (various references)

   

Chinese 

  

耍笑 (Joked). (various references)

   

Czech

  

žertování (banter), šprýmovný (comical, facetious, jocular, prank, prankish). (various references)

   

Finnish

  

pilapuhe, pilanteko (fooling), naljailu (teasing), leikinlasku (jest), leikillinen (humorous, jocular, playful). (various references)

   

French

  

plaisanterie (jocularity, joke). (various references)

   

German

  

scherzhaft (bantering, facetious, jesting, jestingly, jocose, jocosely, jocular, jocularly, jokingly, jovial, jovially, lighthearted, lightheartedly, playful), scherzend (frolicing, jesting, jocose, kidding). (various references)

   

Hebrew 

  

מתחכם (pretending to be wise), "תלוצצות (derision, jesting, mockery). (various references)

   

Hungarian

  

tréfán kívül (jesting apart, joking apart). (various references)

   

Indonesian

  

kelucuan (cuteness, humor), guyon, garah (chase away, frighten away, jesting), dagelan (clowning), berguyon. (various references)

   

Irish

  

magadh. (various references)

   

Italian

  

scherzoso (gamesome, jocular, laughing, mock, playful, sportive, waggish). (various references)

   

Japanese Kanji 

  

滑稽 (comical, funny, humorous, laughable, ridiculous), 口可笑 (witty talking). (various references)

   

Japanese Katakana 

  

くちおかし (witty talking), "っけい (comical, funny, humorous, laughable, National day, ridiculous, severe punishment). (various references)

   

Korean 

  

농담 (joke). (various references)

   

Manx

  

springeragh (joke, playful, playing tricks), spotcheraght (jest, jesting, joke), spotchagh (jocose). (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

okingjay.(various references)

   

Portuguese

  

brincadeira (a practical joke, badinage, banter, dalliance, diversion, drollery, escapade, frisk, frolic, fun, gag, gambol, game, gibe, gird, hoax, humor, humour, jape, jest, jibe, joke, josh, lark, play, pleasantry, practical joke, prank, raillery, rig, sport, waggery). (various references)

   

Romanian

  

fãrã glumã (in good earnest, it is no joke, jesting apart, no joking, no kidding), ajungã-ţi de glumã (enough of joking). (various references)

   

Russian 

  

шутить (droll, jape, jest, joke, joked, josh, kidding, trifle). (various references)

   

Scottish

  

fealla-dh (nf.ind. a joke). (various references)

   

Serbo-Croatian

  

koji se šali, šaljiv (facetious, frolicsome, humorous, jesting, jocose, jocular, joky, waggish). (various references)

   

Spanish

  

humorístico (humorous, jokey), guasón (jester, jesting, jocose, joker, jokey, playful, sporty, tease, teaser, teasing), chistas, bromas (jesting). (various references)

   

Swedish

  

skämtsam (facetious, humorous, jesting, jocose, jocular, jokey, joky, pleasant), skämtar (jokes), skämt (banter, booby-trap, foul, fun, funny, gag, jape, jest, jesting, joke, jokes, lark, pleasantry, trifling, wheeze), gyckel (badinage, buffoonery, foolery, fun, jesting, Josh, mockery, play, raillery, sport), drift (administration, banter, chaff, drift, drifting, drive, impulsion, instinct, jest, jesting, Josh, leg pull, management, operation, persiflage, running, service, traffic, urge, working). (various references)

   

Thai

  

เครีย"อยู่ชั่วข"ะ (joking apart). (various references)

   

Turkish

  

şakacıktan söyleme, şaka yapma. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Joking

LanguagePeriodTranslations
Latin500 BCE-Modern

jocosus. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Joking

Derivations

Words beginning with "joking": jokingly. (additional references)


Misspellings

"Joking" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: jaking, jekin, jetking, joing, jokeing, joken, joki, joting, joving, juking, jukun. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Joking"

# of Phoneme MatchesPronunciationWord(s) rhyming with "joking" (pronounced jō"king)
4-ō" k i ngantismoking, broking, choking, cloaking, coking, croaking, evoking, invoking, nonsmoking, poking, provoking, revoking, smoking, soaking, stoking, stroking.
3-k i ngaching, asking, attacking, backing, backtracking, baking, balking, banking, barking, basking, biking, bilking, blanking, blinking, blocking, bloodsucking, booking, bookmaking, braking, breaking, breathtaking, Brooking, bucking, carjacking, caulking, chalking, checking, chucking, clanking, clicking, clucking, cocking, cooking, corking, cornhusking, cracking, cranking, creaking, critiquing, debunking, decking, disliking, docking, dressmaking, drinking, ducking, duking, earmarking, earthshaking, eking, embarking, faking, filmmaking, flaking, flanking, flicking, flocking, flunking, forking, forsaking, franking, freaking, frolicking, gawking, glassmaking, groundbreaking, hacking, handshaking, hardworking, harking, Hawking, heartbreaking, hijacking, hiking, hitchhiking, Hocking, homemaking, honking, hooking, hulking, interlocking, jacking, jaywalking, jerking, junking, kayaking, kicking, knocking, lacking, lawbreaking, lawmaking, leaking, licking, liking, linking, locking, looking, lovemaking, Lucking, lurking, making, marking, masking, matchmaking, meatpacking, metalworking, milking, mimicking, mistaking, mocking, moneymaking, moviemaking, mucking, muckraking, multitasking, networking, nitpicking, nonbanking, overbooking, overlooking, overtaking, packing, painstaking, panicking, papermaking, parking, peacemaking, peaking, pecking, peeking, perking, picking, piggybacking, planking, plinking, plucking, plunking, politicking, quaking, quarterbacking, racking, raking, ranking, ransacking, rebuking, reeking, reinking, remaking, remarking, restocking, retaking, rethinking, reworking, risking, rocking, rollicking, sacking, seeking, shaking, sharking, shirking, shocking, shrieking, shrinking, shucking, sinking, sleepwalking, smacking, smirking, snaking, sneaking, socking, spacewalking, spanking, sparking, speaking, spiking, squawking, squeaking, stacking, staking, stalking, steelmaking, sticking, stinking, stockbroking, stocking, streaking, striking, sucking, sulking, tacking, taking, talking, tanking, tasking, thanking, ticking, tracking, trafficking, trekking, tricking, trucking, tucking, tweaking, undertaking, undocking, unlocking, unpacking, unthinking, viking, waking, walking, whacking, winking, wisecracking, woodworking, working, wracking, wreaking, wrecking, yanking.

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Joking

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Direct Anagrams: jingko.

Words within the letters "g-i-j-k-n-o"

-1 letter: jingo.

-2 letters: gink, ikon, jink, join, king, kino, oink.

-3 letters: gin, ink, ion, jig, jin, jog, kin, koi, nog.

-4 letters: go, in, jo, no, on.

 Words containing the letters "g-i-j-k-n-o"
 

+1 letter: jouking.

 

+2 letters: jingkoes, jokingly.

 

+3 letters: jockeying, skijoring.

 

+4 letters: sjamboking, skijorings.

 

+5 letters: jackrolling.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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INDEX

1. Definition
2. Synonyms
3. Crosswords
4. Usage: Modern
5. Usage: Commercial
6. Images: Slideshow
7. Quotations: Fiction
8. Quotations: Non-fiction
9. Usage Frequency
10. Expressions
11. Expressions: Internet
12. Translations: Modern
13. Translations: Ancient
14. Derivations
15. Rhymes
16. Anagrams
17. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.