Word.ws English Dictionary

pinko

UK/ˈpɪŋkəʊ//ˈpɪŋkoʊ/

pinko noun: a socialist, particularly one who is not completely communist.

Noun

pinko (plural pinkos or pinkoes)

  1. (US, derogatory, informal, often) A socialist, particularly one who is not completely communist.
    • At Princeton a lone townsman cried "Down with Mussolini!" in the midst of a reception, was jostled by students, escorted off the campus. At Harvard the pinko National Students League protested to President Conant, but allowed the visitors to tour Cambridge in peace.1934 October 22, “Gentlemen & Guttersnipes”, in Time Magazine, number 17, archived from the original on 22 Aug 2024, page 45
    • “I agree with the decision one hundred per cent,” he said. “And if I find any pinkos that I don't know about on my lot I'll get rid of them if I can. They don't even have to be Communists. I'll try to clean out any leftists.”1947 November 30, Thomas F. Brady, quoting Bryan Foy, “Hollywood Divided”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

Proper noun capitalized: Pinko

Pinko (plural Pinkos)

  1. A surname.

pinko meaning in Tamil

pinko in Tamil

செந்நிலை, உச்சப்புள்ளி

Examples of pinko in a sentence

  • They are “more likely to be libertarians than commie pinkos,” he explains.2014, Astra Taylor, quoting Kevin Kelly, chapter 4, in The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Henry Holt...
  • I was a left wing pinko journo making this stuff up in an election year.2020 December 14, Bryan Bruce, “10 years since the Child Poverty documentary, what’s changed?”, in The Daily Blog:

Forms of pinko

Noun
pluralpinkos
pluralpinkoes
Proper noun
pluralPinkos

Origin of pinko

From pink + -o, a variation of red (“Communist”, noun), as pink is a lighter, more diluted form.

Words that rhyme with pinko

Questions about pinko

What does pinko mean?
Pinko means a socialist, particularly one who is not completely communist.
What is pinko in Tamil?
Pinko in Tamil is செந்நிலை, உச்சப்புள்ளி. See Pinko meaning in Tamil.
How do you use pinko in a sentence?
They are “more likely to be libertarians than commie pinkos,” he explains.
What part of speech is pinko?
Pinko can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce pinko?
Pinko is pronounced /ˈpɪŋkəʊ/ (UK).
What is the plural of pinko?
The plural of pinko is pinkos.

Words near pinko in the dictionary

  1. Pinkman
  2. pinkness
  3. pinknesses
  4. Pinkney
  5. Pinkneys
  6. pinko
  7. pinko-grey
  8. pinkoes
  9. pinkoid
  10. pinkoids
  11. pinkos

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pinko (page history and authors); Pinko (page history and authors); pinko (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-pinko.oga.

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