jest
/d͡ʒɛst/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
dialectal/d͡ʒiːst/
jest noun: an act performed for amusement; a joke. Also the pronunciation spelling of just.
Noun
jest (plural jests)
- An act performed for amusement; a joke.
- I made that comment in jest; it wasn't serious.
- Alas poore Yorick, I knew him Horatio, a fellow of infinite Ieſt; […]c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
- Someone or something that is ridiculed; the target of a joke.
- Your majesty, stop him before he makes you the jest of the court.
- Why then make ſport at me, then let me be your ieſt, / I deſerue it[…]c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- A deed; an action; a gest.
- the jests or actions of princes1540, Thomas Elyot, Image of Governance
- A mask; a pageant; an interlude.
- He promised us, in honour of our guest, / To grace our banquet with some pompous jest.c. 1587 (date written), [Thomas Kyd], The Spanish Tragedie: […] (Fourth Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for T[homas] Pauier, […], published 1602, →OCLC, (please specify the page)
Verb
jest (third-person singular simple present jests, present participle jesting, simple past and past participle jested)
Also used as
jest is also the pronunciation spelling of just.
jest meaning in Pashto and Persian
jest in Pashto
- joke
- ټوکه ṭoka
jest in Persian
- joke
- شوخی šuxi, مزاح mezâh
- to tell a joke
- لاغیدن lâġidan, شوخی کردن šuxi kardan
Examples of jest in a sentence
- I was jest a little child but I knowed I oughten to go without my clothes.
- He would never intentionally humiliate anyone, even in jest.
- There is many a true word spoken in jest.
Synonyms of jest
1 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of jest
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | jests |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | jests |
| present participle | jesting |
| past participle | jested |
| past | jested |
Origin of jest
From Middle English geste (“idle tale”), from Old French geste (“acts, exploits”), from Latin gesta (“acts, deeds”). Doublet of gest.
Words formed from jest
Words that rhyme with jest
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- attest
- guest
- quest
- bequest
- distressed
- pest
- prest
- request
- revest
- west
- wrest
- zest
- contest
- depressed
- dressed
- gest
- impressed
- suggest
- acid test
- best
- celeste
- divest
- ingest
- molest
- North West
- northwest
- possessed
- pressed
- professed
- southwest
- -cest
- addressed
- behest
- compressed
- congest
- detest
- fest
- infest
- lest
- obsessed
- pretest
- processed
- repressed
- rest.
- stressed
- tressed
- unrest
- unstressed
Questions about jest
- What does jest mean?
- Jest means an act performed for amusement; a joke.
- What is jest in Pashto?
- Jest in Pashto is ټوکه (ṭoka). See Jest meaning in Pashto.
- What part of speech is jest?
- Jest can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce jest?
- Jest is pronounced /d͡ʒɛst/.
- What is the plural of jest?
- The plural of jest is jests.
Words near jest in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: jest (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-jest.ogg.
Cite this entry: “jest.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jest. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.