Word.ws English Dictionary

inside joke

Syllables: in·side jokeUK/ˈɪnsaɪd ˌd͡ʒəʊk/

inside joke noun: a joke that is understood or meant to be understood only by certain people who are aware of the details (an ingroup).

Noun

inside joke (plural inside jokes)

  1. (idiomatic) A joke that is understood or meant to be understood only by certain people who are aware of the details (an ingroup).
    • After the incident with the potato peeler, references to potatoes became an inside joke among the witnesses.

Synonyms of inside joke

Forms of inside joke

pluralinside jokes

Questions about inside joke

What does inside joke mean?
Inside joke means a joke that is understood or meant to be understood only by certain people who are aware of the details (an ingroup).
What part of speech is inside joke?
Inside joke is a noun.
How do you pronounce inside joke?
Inside joke is pronounced /ˈɪnsaɪd ˌd͡ʒəʊk/ (UK).
What is the plural of inside joke?
The plural of inside joke is inside jokes.

Words near inside joke in the dictionary

  1. inside forward
  2. inside forwards
  3. inside information
  4. inside job
  5. inside jobs
  6. inside joke
  7. inside jokes
  8. inside lag
  9. inside lags
  10. inside lane
  11. inside lanes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: inside 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-inside joke.ogg.

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