Word.ws English Dictionary

half-joke

half-joke is the alternative form of half joke.

Meaning of half joke

Noun

half joke (plural half jokes)

  1. (idiomatic) A statement which contains elements of both jest and seriousness.
    • "Well, let's wait. Perhaps the shooting will die out."
      "Maybe the soldiers and settlers will die out with it," I say, another half-joke.2003, Suad Amiry, Earthquake in April, page 198

See all 2 meanings of half joke

Forms of half-joke

Noun
pluralhalf-jokes
Verb
third-person singular presenthalf-jokes
present participlehalf-joking
past participlehalf-joked
pasthalf-joked

Questions about half-joke

What is half-joke the alternative form of?
Half-joke is the alternative form of half joke.

Words near half-joke in the dictionary

  1. half-islands
  2. half-jacket
  3. half-jackets
  4. half-Jew
  5. half-Jews
  6. half-joke
  7. half-joked
  8. half-jokes
  9. half-joking
  10. half-jokingly
  11. half-kirtle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: half-joke (page history and authors); half joke (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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