Word.ws English Dictionary

different strokes for different folks

different strokes for different folks proverb: different people like different things; there's no accounting for taste.

Proverb

different strokes for different folks

  1. Different people like different things; there's no accounting for taste.
    • There is a yellow one that won't accept the black one / That won't accept the red one, that won't accept the white one / Different strokes for different folks1968, “Everyday People”, in Stand!, performed by Sly and the Family Stone

Origin of different strokes for different folks

1950s US origin, popularized by Muhammad Ali (1966) and later the song "Everyday People" by Sly Stone (1968).

Questions about different strokes for different folks

What does different strokes for different folks mean?
Different strokes for different folks means different people like different things; there's no accounting for taste.
What part of speech is different strokes for different folks?
Different strokes for different folks is a proverb.

Words near different strokes for different folks in the dictionary

  1. different drummers
  2. different ideal
  3. different stories
  4. different story
  5. different strokes
  6. different strokes for different folks
  7. differentation
  8. differentia
  9. differentiabilities
  10. differentiability
  11. differentiable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: different strokes for different folks (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.

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