kike
/kaɪk/
kike noun: a Jew.
Noun
kike (plural kikes)
- A Jew.
- "Now you quit kidding me! What's the nice little name?" "Oh, it ain't so darn nice. I guess it's kind of kike. But my folks ain't kikes. My papa's papa was a nobleman in Poland, and there was a gentleman in here one day, he was kind of a count or something--"1922, Sinclair Lewis, “24”, in Babbitt
- In one tweet, Weisman was referred to as a "kike." Another threatened to have him put "in the oven."2016 June 8, Tom Kludt, “New York Times editor quits Twitter over anti-Semitic tweets”, in CNN Business, archived from the original on 26 Jan 2025
- A miser; a contemptible, stingy person, particularly a well-endowed one.
- That greedy kike would not give me any money when I was starving and needed food.
- An Eastern European Jew.
- The German Jews are bitterly opposed to the "Kikes," as they persist in calling the Russian Jews.1912, Report of the National Conference of Jewish Charities in the United States, Cleveland
Verb
kike (third-person singular simple present kikes, present participle kiking, simple past and past participle kiked)
Adjective
kike (comparative more kike, superlative most kike)
- Jewish.
- If you repeat that lie, I'll wring that skinny kike neck of yours with my own hands!1956, David Karp, All Honorable Men, page 74
- Of goods or manufacturing, poor-quality.
- She had on a kike hat from a Division Street department store, of one department - the dollar down and a dollar a week department - and a shirtwaist with green and yellow stripes that would drive you dippy.1904, Roy Larcom McCardell, The Show Girl and Her Friends, page 170
kike meaning in Persian
kike in Persian
- offensive: Jewish person
- جهود johud
Synonyms of kike
Forms of kike
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | kikes |
| alternative form | kyke |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | kikes |
| present participle | kiking |
| past participle | kiked |
| past | kiked |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more kike |
| superlative | most kike |
Origin of kike
Originally used by German-American Jews as a slur for Eastern European Jews immigrating to the United States. The most dominant theory is from Yiddish קײַקל (kaykl, “circle”). In the early 20th century, non-English-speaking Jews that immigrated to the United States would sign papers with a circle as opposed to a more common X, in order to avoid using a symbol reminiscent of a Christian Cross. If so, a doublet of chakra, chakram, charkha, chukker, cycle, cyclus, and wheel. Other theories also exist, in particular a contraction from the documented phrase “Ikey-Kikey”, an American-origin reduplication of ikey, which in turn is a British-English pejorative for Jews after the prevalence of the name Isaac. Alternatively, from Scots keek (“to peek or peep surreptitiously”), used in the New York City clothing industry to refer to the practice of sending spies to work in competing garment factories to copy designs which would then be reproduced and sold at lower cost. Eastern European Jews played a major role in the clothing industry and were perceived to frequently participate in underhanded business tactics. Originally mostly used by older, established German Jews to refer to the Eastern...
Words formed from kike
Phrases with kike
Words that rhyme with kike
Questions about kike
- What does kike mean?
- Kike means a Jew.
- What is kike in Persian?
- Kike in Persian is جهود (johud). See Kike meaning in Persian.
- What part of speech is kike?
- Kike can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce kike?
- Kike is pronounced /kaɪk/.
- What is the plural of kike?
- The plural of kike is kikes.
Words near kike in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: kike (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-kike.wav.
Cite this entry: “kike.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kike. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.