Word.ws English Dictionary

joual

joual noun: the dialect of working-class Quebecers.

Noun

joual (uncountable)

  1. (Canada) The dialect of working-class Quebecers.
    • As inflammatory as what the joual ‘is’—a mixed, oral sociolect—is its function as a kind of self-image for Québécois. In Jean-Claude Germain's terms, joual ‘bears in its flesh the scars of life and history.’2011, Erin Hurley, National Performance: Representing Quebec from Expo 67 to Céline Dion, University of Toronto Press, →ISBN

Forms of joual

alternative formJoual

Origin of joual

Borrowed from Canadian French joual.

Questions about joual

What does joual mean?
Joual means the dialect of working-class Quebecers.
What part of speech is joual?
Joual is a noun.

Words near joual in the dictionary

  1. jotunns
  2. jotuns
  3. Jou
  4. jou-jou
  5. jou-jous
  6. joual
  7. Jouan
  8. Jouars-Pontchartrain
  9. Joubert
  10. Joubert syndrome
  11. Jouberts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: joual (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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