Word.ws English Dictionary

jests

/d͡ʒɛsts/

jests is the plural of jest.

jests is the third-person singular simple present indicative of jest.

Meaning of jest

Noun

jest (plural jests)

  1. (archaic, typically uncountable) An act performed for amusement; a joke.
    • I made that comment in jest; it wasn't serious.
  2. (archaic) Someone or something that is ridiculed; the target of a joke.
    • Your majesty, stop him before he makes you the jest of the court.
  3. (obsolete) A deed; an action; a gest.
    • the jests or actions of princes1540, Thomas Elyot, Image of Governance
  4. (obsolete) 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)

See all 5 meanings of jest

Words that rhyme with jests

Questions about jests

What is jests the plural of?
Jests is the plural of jest.
How do you pronounce jests?
Jests is pronounced /d͡ʒɛsts/.

Words near jests in the dictionary

  1. jestmongers
  2. jestress
  3. jestresses
  4. jestrum
  5. jestrums
  6. jests
  7. jesture
  8. jestures
  9. jesty
  10. Jesu
  11. Jesuate

Source and license

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

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