Word.ws English Dictionary

uke

/juːk/

uke is the clipping of ukulele.

Noun (1)

IPA/ˈuːke/

uke (plural ukes or uke)

  1. The training partner against whom tori performs a move.
  2. (Japanese, slang) A passive or submissive male fictional character in a same-sex relationship; a bottom.
    • Yaoi uke in fanfics often bear the brunt of stereotypical "negative female characteristics" such as passivity, helplessness, and masochism.2008, Tan Bee Kee, “Rewriting Gender and Sexuality in English-language Yaoi Fanfiction”, in Antonia Levi, Mark McHarry, Dru Pagliassotti, editors, Boys' Love Manga: Essays on the Sexual Ambiguity and...
    • You'd rather have Sebas be an uke?2010, Pentabu, My Girlfriend’s a Geek, volume 1, Yen Press, published 2012, →ISBN
    Antonyms:
    seme

Meaning of ukulele

Noun

ukulele (plural ukuleles)

  1. A small four-stringed guitar.

Noun (2) capitalized: Uke

Uke (plural Ukes)

  1. (colloquial) A Ukrainian.
    Synonyms:
    Ukie, Yukie

Synonyms of uke

Antonyms

Forms of uke

pluralukes
pluraluke
pluralUkes

Origin of uke

From Japanese 受け (uke), the 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of the verb 受(う)ける (ukeru, “to receive, to get”).

1941, abbreviation of Ukrainian.

Words formed from uke

Words that rhyme with uke

23 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about uke

What does uke mean?
Uke means the training partner against whom tori performs a move.
What is uke the clipping of?
Uke is the clipping of ukulele.
What part of speech is uke?
Uke is a noun.
How do you pronounce uke?
Uke is pronounced /juːk/.
What is the plural of uke?
The plural of uke is ukes.

Words near uke in the dictionary

  1. ukases
  2. ukay-ukay
  3. ukaz
  4. UKC
  5. UKCP
  6. uke
  7. uke-e
  8. ukelele
  9. ukeleles
  10. ukelin
  11. ukelins

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: uke (page history and authors); Uke (page history and authors); ukulele (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-uke.wav.

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