Word.ws English Dictionary

Joe Q. Public

Joe Q. Public is the alternative form of John Q. Public.

Meaning of John Q. Public

Noun

John Q. Public (uncountable)

  1. (idiomatic) A generic individual; some hypothetical average or ordinary citizen.
    • Near-synonyms: everyman; Tom, Dick or Harry; Joe Sixpack

Questions about Joe Q. Public

What is Joe Q. Public the alternative form of?
Joe Q. Public is the alternative form of John Q. Public.

Words near Joe Q. Public in the dictionary

  1. Joe Millerisms
  2. Joe Millers
  3. Joe Nobodies
  4. Joe Nobody
  5. Joe Public
  6. Joe Q. Public
  7. Joe Random
  8. Joe Schmo
  9. Joe Schmoe
  10. Joe Shmo
  11. Joe Shmoe

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Joe Q. Public (page history and authors); John Q. Public (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: “Joe Q. Public.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/joe_q._public. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.