dank
/ˈdæŋk/US/ˈdeɪ̯ŋk/
dank adjective: dark, damp and humid.
Adjective
dank (comparative danker, superlative dankest)
- Dark, damp and humid.
- The dank cave was chilly and spooky.
- Now that the fields are dank and ways are mire.1646 (indicated as 1645), John Milton, Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], →OCLC
- Moist and sticky, (by extension) highly potent.
- That was dank bud.
- Great, awesome.
- Expounding right-wing views in a cool way; based.
- His house organ Breitbart and a host of Trump-right websites and news outlets sang praises to his dank genius.2018, January 5, Rick Wilson, “Bannon Banished for Telling Truths About Trump as MAGA Monsters Turn on Each Other”, in The Daily Beast
- One thing that always brings me joy at this time of year is to spot a really dank meme. Or seeing the number of plays on my Jordan Peterson podcast, or beholding one of my mutuals get traction on X with a thread on Cultural Marxism and Gender Ideology[…]2025 May 2, Stephen Collins, “What to look for in Spring with Kemi Badenoch”, in The Guardian
Noun (1)
dank (uncountable)
- Moisture; humidity; water.
- The ravviſh danke of clumzie vvinter ramps / The fluent ſummers vaine: and drizling ſleete / Chilleth the vvan bleak cheek of the numd earth, / VVhilſt ſnarling guſts nibble the iuyceles leaues, / From the nak't ſhuddring branch; […]1600 or 1601 (date written), I. M. [i.e., John Marston], “The Prologue”, in Antonios Reuenge. The Second Part. […], London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, and are to be soulde [by Matthew...
- Yet oft they quit | The dank, and rising on siff pennons, tow'r | the mid aerial sky1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC
- Dankness; a dark, moist and usually unpleasant atmosphere.
- You ain't thinking of getting rid of the dank, are you, Moe?1995, Greg Daniels, Bart Sells His Soul (The Simpsons)
- Out of curiosity I follow him down into the dank of the basement.2002, Wendel Messer, The Sink: The Last Days of Driving, Wendel Messer, →ISBN
- Strong, high-quality cannabis.
- I got more growin' pains than Maggie / 'Cause homies nag me to take the dank out of the baggie1995, “I Got 5 on It”, in Operation Stackola, performed by Luniz
- Smoking mids will get you about three times higher than shwag, and same for dank—it'll be about six times higher than smoking some mids.2015, Scott Jacques, Richard Wright, Code of the Suburb, page 9
Verb
dank (third-person singular simple present danks, present participle danking, simple past and past participle danked)
Noun (2)
dank (plural danks)
dank meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
dank in Urdu
- بھیگا, نم
dank in Bengali
- সেঁতসেঁতে, আদ্র
dank in Malayalam
- damp, musty, chilly
- നനവുള്ള, ഈർപ്പമുള്ള, തണുപ്പുള്ള, ക്ലിന്ന, നനഞ്ഞ, ഈറനായ
dank in Kannada
- ತಡಿ, ನೆನೆದ
Examples of dank in a sentence
- Cheerless watches on the cold, dank ground.1835, Richard Chenevix Trench, The Story of Justin Martyr:
- Who were the strugglers, what war did they wage, / Whose savage trample thus could pad the dank / Soil to a plash? [...]1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XXII:
- It's a world away from the dank and uninviting St Pancras that British Rail wanted to tear down in the 1960s.2022 November 30, Nick Brodrick, “Pride and innovation shine at St Pancras”, in RAIL, number 971, page 69:
- Now, though, there was a sound that seemed quite out of place there in the dank of the forest.2006 July 4, Michele Baxter, The Chronicles of Serendipus: The Tale of the Secret Keeper, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 77:
Forms of dank
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | danker |
| superlative | dankest |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | danks |
| present participle | danking |
| past participle | danked |
| past | danked |
| Noun | |
| plural | danks |
| alternative form | danek |
Origin of dank
From Middle English danke (“wet, damp; dampness, moisture”), probably from North Germanic, related to Swedish dank (“marshy spot”), Icelandic dökk (“pool”), Old Norse dǫkk (“pit, depression”), from Proto-Germanic *dankwaz (“dark”). However, some trace it to a West Germanic source such as Dutch damp (“vapor”) or Middle High German damph, both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *dampaz (“smoke, steam, vapor”). Modern slang senses derived from the drug sense; compare based (“awesome, especially in a right-wing context online”) from drug terminology freebased.
From Middle English danken, from the adjective (see above).
Words formed from dank
Phrases with dank
Words that rhyme with dank
Questions about dank
- What does dank mean?
- Dank means dark, damp and humid.
- What is dank in Urdu?
- Dank in Urdu is بھیگا, نم. See Dank meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use dank in a sentence?
- Cheerless watches on the cold, dank ground.
- What part of speech is dank?
- Dank can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce dank?
- Dank is pronounced /ˈdæŋk/.
Words near dank in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dank (page history and authors); dank (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Dank (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dank (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); dank (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dank.wav.
Cite this entry: “dank.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dank. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.