Word.ws English Dictionary

joe

/d͡ʒəʊ//d͡ʒoʊ/

joe noun: a male; a guy; a fellow. Also the alternative form of jo.

Noun (1)

joe (plural joes)

  1. (informal) A male; a guy; a fellow.
    • I'm just an ordinary joe.
  2. (UK, slang) A spy, especially a double agent.
    • Name me a joe in a bad country ... who doesn't fall for a pretty face if she's on his side against the world.2001, Tod Hoffman, Le Carré's Landscape, page 193
    • Soviet troops were permitted to enter the American sector, where they could easily capture and torture an agent to confirm the existence of a Joe house, then cripple American espionage efforts by kidnapping a nest of spies in one fell swoop.2004, Richard W. Cutler, Counterspy, page 96
  3. (historical) Synonym of johannes (“An old Portuguese gold coin bearing a figure of John V of Portugal.”).
    • I have seen doubloons before now in my voyagings; your doubloons of old Spain, your doubloons of Peru, your doubloons of Chili, your doubloons of Bolivia, your doubloons of Popayan; with plenty of gold moidores and pistoles, and joes, and half joes, and quarter joes.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Chapter XCIX. The Doubloon”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 481
    • Guineas, joes, half joes, doubloons, and pistoles of various origin constituted the gold currency, while the silver was mostly the Spanish American dollar and its fractions: the half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth, with the pistareen and half pistareen.1861, “United States Mint”, “Chapter I. Establishment of Mint—Standard of Coins—Laws Regulating Coinage—Progress of Coinage—Precious Metals in the Country”, in Eighty Years’ Progress of the United...
    Synonyms:
    johannes

Noun (2)

joe (countable and uncountable, plural joes)

  1. (US, informal) Coffee.
    • In olden times, you'd wander down to Mom's Cafe for a bite to eat and a cup of joe, and you would feel right at home.1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, page 178
    • 45 have some joe Week's almost over—now bring it home. Austrian researchers found that a cup of java resulted in a 45-minute boost of brain activity in the regions responsible for attention, concentration, and short-term memory.2008 January–February, “70 Ways to Improve Every Day of the Week”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 1, →ISSN, page 135

Proper noun capitalized: Joe

Joe

  1. A diminutive of the male given names Joseph, Josiah, Joel, and Josias.
    • "With a name like Joe," Joe always said, "I had to open a bar and grill, just so I could put up a sign saying 'Joe's Bar and Grill'."1981 Orson Scott Card, Second Movement, Nebula Winners: Science Fiction Writers of America, Harper&Row, 1981, page 207
    • With Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ decision to end his campaign on Wednesday, it’s now official: Former Vice President Joe Biden will be the Democratic presidential nominee this fall.2020 April 8, Chris Cillizza, “Why Joe Biden starts as the general election front-runner”, in CNN
  2. (alternative, rare) Alternative form of Jo: a diminutive of various female given names.
  3. A surname.

Noun (3) capitalized: Joe

Joe (plural Joes)

  1. (informal) A male; a guy; a fellow.
    • I'm just an ordinary Joe.
  2. (archaic, slang) Synonym of Joe Miller (“an old joke”).
    • O what "a Joe," — what an "old Joe!" — / A very "old Joe!" — / Old Joe Miller made the joke before, / But nothing tells better that ^([sic]) a good old Joe!1848, James Robinson Planché, The Golden Branch, page 22
    Synonyms:
    Joe Miller

Also used as

joe is also the alternative form of jo.

joe meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Telugu and Malayalam

joe in Tamil

ஜோ

joe in Bengali

জো

joe in Telugu

జో

joe in Malayalam

ജോ
More languagesFewer languages
joe in Kannada
ಜೋ
joe in Punjabi
ਜੋਅ
joe in Odia
ଜୋ
joe in Nepali
जोए

Examples of joe in a sentence

  • Then Hapgood turned him into a joe — that is, he works for the British.2009, John Fleming, Stoppard's Theatre: Finding Order amid Chaos, page 178:
  • Lamb didn't look any different, was still a soft fat rude bastard, still dressed like he'd been thrown through a charity shop window, but Jesus, River thought—Lamb was a joe.2010, Mick Herron, Slow Horses, page 215:
  • Some people say I make the best joe in town.2010, Melody Carlson, A Mile in My Flip-Flops, page 221:

All 40 example sentences with joe

Synonyms of joe

Forms of joe

pluraljoes
alternative formJoe
pluralJoes
alternative formjoe

Plural of joe: joes

Origin of joe

From the proper name Joe.

Uncertain. See cup of joe for more.

Short form (diminutive form) of various names beginning with Jo..., particularly the male names Joseph and, less often, Joel, Josiah and Josias. The spelling Jo is used more often for diminutives of similar female names.

Words formed from joe

Phrases with joe

7 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with joe

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about joe

What does joe mean?
Joe means a male; a guy; a fellow.
What is joe in Tamil?
Joe in Tamil is ஜோ. See Joe meaning in Tamil.
How do you use joe in a sentence?
Then Hapgood turned him into a joe — that is, he works for the British.
What part of speech is joe?
Joe can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce joe?
Joe is pronounced /d͡ʒəʊ/ (UK).
What is the plural of joe?
The plural of joe is joes.

Words near joe in the dictionary

  1. jody cadences
  2. jody call
  3. jody calls
  4. Jody chant
  5. Jody chants
  6. joe
  7. Joe Average
  8. Joe Averages
  9. joe blake
  10. joe blakes
  11. Joe Bloggs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: joe (page history and authors); Joe (page history and authors); joe (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); joe (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); joe (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); joe (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); joe (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); joe (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); joe (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); joe (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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)-Vealhurl-Joe.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-joe.wav.

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