Word.ws English Dictionary

folks

UK/fəʊks//foʊks/

folks noun: the members of one's immediate family, especially one's parents. Also the plural of folk.

Noun (1)

folks pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only) The members of one's immediate family, especially one's parents
    • My folks visit us at Christmas.
  2. (US, plural, plural-only) People in general; everybody or anybody.
    • Lots of folks like to travel during the holidays.
    • Wilson: He's right. They endorse Royce, fine, 'the hell else they gonna do? But what they say and don't say from the pulpit the Sunday before the primary we still got a dog in that fight.
      Carcetti: I do this right, they respect it.
      Wilson: An' if they don't, at least they get to see a beggin'-ass...2006 October 1, Dennis Lehane, “Refugees”, in The Wire, 00:32:06
  3. (Louisiana, Southern, US, plural, plural-only, rare) The police.

Noun (2)

folks pl (plural only)

  1. (California, plural, plural-only) Late 19th and early 20th century migrants to California from Iowa and other parts of the Midwestern United States.
    • McPherson's healing ministry, in fact. was at the core of her success, since so many of the Folks had come to Southern California in late middle or old age in the hope of regaining lost health.2007, Kevin Starr, California: A History, Modern Library, →ISBN, page 182

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Folks

Folks

  1. A surname.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Folks

Folks

  1. (plural) plural of Folk
  2. (California, Southern, archaic) Transplants to Southern California from the Midwestern United States, especially Iowa.

Also used as

folks is also the plural of folk.

Origin of folks

Coined by California historian Kevin Starr.

Words formed from folks

Phrases with folks

Words that rhyme with folks

1 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about folks

What does folks mean?
Folks means the members of one's immediate family, especially one's parents.
What part of speech is folks?
Folks can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce folks?
Folks is pronounced /fəʊks/ (UK).

Words near folks in the dictionary

  1. folkniks
  2. folkred
  3. folkrede
  4. folkright
  5. folkrights
  6. folks
  7. folksier
  8. folksiest
  9. folksily
  10. folksiness
  11. folksinger

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: folks (page history and authors); 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-folks.ogg.

Cite this entry: “folks.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/folks. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.