jank
/ˈd͡ʒæŋk//ˈd͡ʒeɪ̯ŋk/
jank noun: perceptible pause in the smooth rendering of a software application's user interface due to slow operations or poor interface design.
Noun
jank (uncountable)
- Perceptible pause in the smooth rendering of a software application's user interface due to slow operations or poor interface design.
- This also marks the first time I haven’t felt that Samsung jank on the phone, which deserves its own paragraph in its own right. That weird stuttering and pausing you’ve seen on so many Samsung phones seems to be almost completely gone on the Note 3 […]2013, Nick Sutrich, Android Headlines
- In cases where you’re concerned about scrolling, the browser can manage the frame rate for you. But if you introduce a large amount of jank, then it won’t be able to do as good a job.2013, Addy Osmani, Smashing Magazine
- Game mechanics of unconventional or flawed design or implementation, and the experience of such mechanics, as to ruin or disrupt play, or break immersion; e.g. bugs and glitches.
- Bethesda’s jank made a PvP-centric experience hellish. Players kept finding exploits left and right.2019, Patricia Hernandez, After the backlash, Bethesda is on a long quest to redeem Fallout 76, Polygon
- Maybe Soulstorm is an ideal tribute to the PlayStation era, considering how much period-specific jank is in the code.2021, Luke Winkle, Oddworld: Soulstorm review, PC Gamer
- A game, or games, with such mechanics.
Adjective
jank (comparative more jank, superlative most jank)
- Janky.
- Sadly, my new laptop is even more jank than my old one.
Examples of jank in a sentence
- in order to hit this impressive frame rate, the “jank-free” Sky prioritizes the UI over other processes, meaning the app should stay smooth when it works heavily in the background.2015, Bogdan Petrovan, Android Authority:
- Even though JavaScript will try to update the animation every frame, it will likely not be able to do that fast enough and will cause dropped frames (jank) to occur.2018, Eli White, Facebook React Native Blog:
- Jank is the understated secret sauce of game development.2018, Ryan Cooper, The Joy of Jank, Unwinnable:
- The build I played was rough around the edges; I experienced a couple of hard crashes, as well as some placeholder assets and bugs that went beyond the charming old-school jank I was expecting.2023, Jordan Oloman, STALKER 2 is a merciless trip down memory lane, Polygon:
Forms of jank
| comparative | more jank |
|---|---|
| superlative | most jank |
Origin of jank
Ostensibly a back-formation from janky (“shoddy, poor quality”).
Words that rhyme with jank
Questions about jank
- What does jank mean?
- Jank means perceptible pause in the smooth rendering of a software application's user interface due to slow operations or poor interface design.
- How do you use jank in a sentence?
- in order to hit this impressive frame rate, the “jank-free” Sky prioritizes the UI over other processes, meaning the app should stay smooth when it works heavily in the background.
- What part of speech is jank?
- Jank can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce jank?
- Jank is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒæŋk/.
Words near jank in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: jank (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-jank.wav.
Cite this entry: “jank.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jank. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.