Word.ws English Dictionary

joss

/dʒɒs/US/dʒɔs/

joss noun: a Chinese household divinity; a Chinese idol.

Noun

joss (countable and uncountable, plural josses)

  1. (countable) A Chinese household divinity; a Chinese idol.
  2. (countable) A heathen divinity.
    • Don't forget they're mostly just joss-worshipping heathen an' they don't get no kick out of the more classy breeds o' religion. Though I guess there ain't that much diff'rence. It ain't many's so Lord Almighty in theirselves that they don't need a joss of some sort, an' I guess it's what yu think...1939, Philip George Chadwick, The Death Guard, pages 111–112
  3. (informal, uncountable) Luck.
    • She had twisted a piece of heather into her mail box for good joss, and this was the safety signal.1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 178
    Synonyms:
    chance

Proper noun capitalized: Joss

Joss (plural Josses)

  1. A diminutive of the female given name Jocelyn.
  2. A diminutive of the male given name Joseph.
  3. A surname.

Verb capitalized: Joss

Joss (third-person singular simple present Josses, present participle Jossing, simple past and past participle Jossed)

  1. (slang, transitive) To invalidate a fan theory or original element of a fanwork through the introduction of new canon or retconning.
    • Author's note part 2: I'm leaving it to the imagination of the reader what Cordelia saw of her future. Writing that out would be asking to be Jossed.2000 December 25, Shanna, “Holiday at the Hyperion (2/2)”, in alt.tv.buffy-v-slayer.creative (Usenet)
    • I have this pet theory which will no doubt be Jossed (Greenwalted?) sooner or later. That Wes's dad is not a Watcher, but someone wealthy and financially connected with the Council (if they have all that influence, at least some of the people involved must know who they are)--in short, some kind of...2001 October 20, Sarah Trombley, “Re: Cut Scenes from Carpe Noctem Script”, in alt.tv.angel (Usenet)

joss meaning in Urdu, Punjabi and Odia

joss in Urdu

چینی مورت, قسمت

joss in Punjabi

ਜੌਸ

joss in Odia

ଜସ୍

Synonyms of joss

Forms of joss

Noun
pluraljosses
alternative form (obsolete)ghos
Proper noun
pluralJosses
Verb
third-person singular presentJosses
present participleJossing
past participleJossed
pastJossed

Origin of joss

From Chinese Pidgin English joss, from Macau Pidgin Portuguese, from Portuguese deus (“god”), from Latin deus (“god”), from Proto-Indo-European *deywós (“god/that which belongs to heaven”). Doublet of Tiw and Tyr.

Verb usage evolved from the name of Joss Whedon, creator of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly.

Words formed from joss

Phrases with joss

Words that rhyme with joss

27 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about joss

What does joss mean?
Joss means a Chinese household divinity; a Chinese idol.
What is joss in Urdu?
Joss in Urdu is چینی مورت, قسمت. See Joss meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is joss?
Joss can be a noun, a proper noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce joss?
Joss is pronounced /dʒɒs/ (UK).
What is the plural of joss?
The plural of joss is josses.

Words near joss in the dictionary

  1. joskins
  2. Joslin
  3. Joslins
  4. Joslyn
  5. josos
  6. joss
  7. joss house
  8. joss houses
  9. joss paper
  10. joss papers
  11. joss stick

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: joss (page history and authors); Joss (page history and authors); joss (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); joss (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); joss (Odia, 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-joss.wav.

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