eff
/ɛf/
eff is the alternative spelling of ef.
Meaning of ef
Noun
ef (plural efs)
Verb (1)
eff (third-person singular simple present effs, present participle effing, simple past and past participle effed)
- Synonym of fuck.
- Eff off!
- And he kept saying, "Effing this, effing that."
Verb (2)
eff (third-person singular simple present effs, present participle effing, simple past and past participle effed)
- To put into words; to express.
- […] and perhaps also because what we know partakes in no small measure of the nature of what has so happily been called the unutterable or ineffable, so that any attempt to utter or eff it is doomed to fail, doomed, doomed to fail.1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC
- They, no more than we, found it hard to eff the ineffable, but they, you see, needed to console themselves more.2001, Paul West, Master Class: Scenes from a Fiction Workshop, page 57
Proper noun capitalized: EFF
EFF
- Initialism of Electronic Frontier Foundation.
- The EFF asked Legere about the issue on Twitter. After partially answering the question in a video, Legere said, "Who the f— are you anyway EFF? Why are you stirring up so much trouble, and who pays you?"2016 January 11, Heather Kelly, “T-Mobile CEO apologizes for EFF F-bomb”, in CNN Business, archived from the original on 14 May 2025
- Initialism of Economic Freedom Fighters.
- Once all the votes are counted, if the ANC remains below 50% it will be forced to enter a coalition with one or more parties. Depending on how low its support dips, it may need to form a deal with one of the larger opposition parties such as the DA or EFF to remain in power.2024 May 30, Sarah Dean and David McKenzie, “First results in South Africa’s election suggest it is heading for biggest political shift since apartheid”, in CNN, archived from the original on 14 May...
Noun capitalized: Eff
Eff (plural Effs)
- Alternative letter-case form of eff.
Synonyms of eff
Forms of eff
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | effs |
| plural | Effs |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | effs |
| present participle | effing |
| past participle | effed |
| past | effed |
Origin of eff
From the name of the letter f (see etymology 1), the initial letter of fuck. Compare pee.
Back-formation from ineffable, ultimately from Latin effor (“utter”).
Words formed from eff
Words that rhyme with eff
Questions about eff
- What does eff mean?
- Eff means synonym of fuck.
- What is eff the alternative spelling of?
- Eff is the alternative spelling of ef.
- What part of speech is eff?
- Eff can be a verb, a proper noun or a noun.
- How do you pronounce eff?
- Eff is pronounced /ɛf/.
- What is the past tense of eff?
- The past tense of eff is effed.
Words near eff in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: eff (page history and authors); EFF (page history and authors); Eff (page history and authors); ef (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:
Cite this entry: “eff.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/eff. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.