Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To have sexual intercourse with.
  • intransitive verb To take advantage of, betray, or cheat; victimize.
  • intransitive verb Used in the imperative as a signal of angry dismissal.
  • intransitive verb To engage in sexual intercourse.
  • intransitive verb To act wastefully or foolishly.
  • intransitive verb To tinker or meddle with something. Often used with with.
  • intransitive verb To tease or treat someone carelessly or indifferently. Often used with with.
  • noun An act of sexual intercourse.
  • noun A partner in sexual intercourse.
  • noun A despised person.
  • noun Used as an intensive.
  • interjection Used to express extreme displeasure.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun vulgar slang A slang term for sexual intercourse.
  • verb vulgar slang to have sexual intercourse (with).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb vulgar, colloquial To have sexual intercourse, to copulate.
  • verb vulgar, colloquial To insert one’s penis, a dildo or other phallic object, into a specified orifice or cleft.
  • verb vulgar, colloquial To put in an extremely difficult or impossible situation.
  • verb vulgar, colloquial To break; to destroy.
  • verb vulgar, colloquial To defraud.
  • verb vulgar, colloquial To play with; to tinker.
  • verb vulgar, colloquial, often derogatory Used to express great displeasure with someone or something.
  • verb vulgar, colloquial To lose care for, to forget, to disregard, to no longer regard as important.
  • noun vulgar, colloquial An act of sexual intercourse.
  • noun vulgar, colloquial A sexual partner, especially a casual one.
  • noun vulgar, colloquial A highly contemptible person.
  • noun A thing of no value, a small amount.
  • interjection vulgar, colloquial Expressing dismay or discontent.
  • adverb Used as an intensifier for the words "yes" and "no".

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun slang for sexual intercourse
  • verb have sexual intercourse with

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English (attested in pseudo-Latin fuccant, (they) fuck, deciphered from gxddbov), probably akin to Dutch fokken, to strike, have sexual intercourse with, breed (cattle), German ficken, to have sexual intercourse with, and Swedish dialectal fock, penis; see peuk- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Undetermined, but probably from Middle English *fucken, *fukken, of North Germanic origin, related to dialectal Norwegian fukka ("to copulate; fuck"), Swedish fokka (earlier "to fuck; thrust; push", nowadays focka ("to fire from work")), Swedish fock ("penis"), and Middle Dutch (and Modern Dutch) fokken ("to breed"). It may go back to the Proto-Indo-European *pug-, *puǵ- ("to strike"; source of Latin pūgnus ("fist") among many others), or to Proto-Indo-European *puḱn-, *pewḱ- ("to sting, stick, stab"; compare German ficken ("to fuck")). The word may be attested in an 772 CE charter which mentions a place called Fuccerham, which possibly means “ham of the fucker” or “hamm ("pasture") of the fucker”. The first verifiable use of the word in English writing appears in Flen flyys and freris, a medieval poem (1495–1505) containing the pseudo-Latin form fvccant; first listed in a dictionary in 1598. Appeared in Scots as fuck, fuk in 16th century sources, the earliest being the 1503 poem “Brash of Wowing” by William Dunbar, which includes the lines: “Yit be his feirris he wald haif fukkit: / Ye brek my hairt, my bony ane.”

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Examples

  • Even though I was a freshman in high school, I had never heard anyone say the word fuck in a movie before.

    I'm Perfect, You're Doomed Kyria Abrahams 2009

  • When I was littleabout seven, I guessI remember getting in the car with my mother when she picked me up from school and telling her that Id seen the word fuck written on the handball court at the playground and I wanted to know what it meant.

    Wishful Drinking Carrie Fisher 2008

  • When I was littleabout seven, I guessI remember getting in the car with my mother when she picked me up from school and telling her that Id seen the word fuck written on the handball court at the playground and I wanted to know what it meant.

    Wishful Drinking Carrie Fisher 2008

  • When I was littleabout seven, I guessI remember getting in the car with my mother when she picked me up from school and telling her that Id seen the word fuck written on the handball court at the playground and I wanted to know what it meant.

    Wishful Drinking Carrie Fisher 2008

  • The word fuck suggests suction and/or and/or flatulence.

    The Worst Years of Your Life Mark Jude Poirier 2007

  • FUCK*: Adding the word fuck among friends can help any insult.

    How To Be Funny JON MACKS 2003

  • FUCK*: Adding the word fuck among friends can help any insult.

    How To Be Funny JON MACKS 2003

  • FUCK*: Adding the word fuck among friends can help any insult.

    How To Be Funny JON MACKS 2003

  • FUCK*: Adding the word fuck among friends can help any insult.

    How To Be Funny JON MACKS 2003

  • FUCK*: Adding the word fuck among friends can help any insult.

    How To Be Funny JON MACKS 2003

Comments

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  • Celebrity lexicographer Jesse Sheidlower's comprehensive book "The F-word" is worth a read. Good book, but by the thousandth variation, the f-bomb loses some of it's power.

    December 2, 2006

  • Is there anything it CAN'T mean?

    December 2, 2006

  • ..when you need stronger words to comfort you on the waves of life. I believe strong words can not harm you - or anyone else - if your heart is pure and you understand, that the f-word is only a tool to get you through a heck of a moment. To me swear words and the like are some sort of an instant verbal gratification. I use the f-word fluently. In Finland it's a v-word. Sounds much worse in Finnish. Trust me, I know.

    June 24, 2007

  • Word History: The obscenity fuck is a very old word and has been considered shocking from the first, though it is seen in print much more often now than in the past. Its first known occurrence, in code because of its unacceptability, is in a poem composed in a mixture of Latin and English sometime before 1500. The poem, which satirizes the Carmelite friars of Cambridge, England, takes its title, "Flen flyys," from the first words of its opening line, "Flen, flyys, and freris," that is, "fleas, flies, and friars." The line that contains fuck reads "Non sunt in coeli, quia gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk." The Latin words "Non sunt in coeli, quia," mean "they (the friars) are not in heaven, since." The code "gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk" is easily broken by simply substituting the preceding letter in the alphabet, keeping in mind differences in the alphabet and in spelling between then and now: i was then used for both i and j; v was used for both u and v; and vv was used for w. This yields "fvccant (a fake Latin form) vvivys of heli." The whole thus reads in translation: "They are not in heaven because they fuck wives of Ely (a town near Cambridge)."

    Aside: FUCK did not start out life as the acronym: For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.

    September 15, 2007

  • I've seen some crazy etymologies, but this one surpasses them all, sheer awesomeness.

    September 18, 2007

  • I just read a fantastic article in The New Republic that has a lot to do with this word. Here, read it, it's good.

    October 12, 2007

  • You're right. That is good. Thanks for the link!

    October 12, 2007

  • Bad Words, Overused, Can Lose Their Sting (New York Times, 05/16/08):

    The most surprising thing about Sue Simmons’s unbleeped blooper the other night is that anyone in this city even noticed.

    You may have read about her unfortunate slip. Ms. Simmons, a news anchor on WNBC-TV, tried to get the attention of her longtime partner, Chuck Scarborough, by asking him, “What are you doing?�?

    Only she did not realize that they were live on the air. And she didn’t quite say “What are you doing?�? She inserted two words between “what�? and “are.�? One of those words was “the.�? Sorry to be coy about the other one, but it is not allowed to be printed here. Rules are rules. If you can’t figure out what it is, you have not been in New York very long — like less than four minutes.

    Despite a certain amount of twitter over this incident, it seems that both the republic and Ms. Simmons will survive. “She’ll continue to be on the air,�? said a WNBC spokeswoman, Susan Kiel.

    The reality is that this vulgar word has been tossed about with such abandon in public for so many years that New Yorkers tend to tune it out. Its endless, and mindless, repetition left them numb long ago. By now, the word is no longer shocking, just tedious.

    May 16, 2008

  • Good article, Lampbane. My favorite paragraph:

    "Rarely do any of these people display a glimmer of the creativity shown by a fellow soldier in my Army days. The jeep he was driving broke down. Looking under the hood, he needed only four words to pronounce the vehicle beyond repair. The first was 'the,' followed by the Simmons-Cheney-Spitzer word in its adjectival, noun and verb forms--in that order. It bordered on poetry."

    May 16, 2008

  • Is it weird, Reesetee, that I immediately given only "the" and 3 f-words I guessed exactly the precise form the soldier used?

    May 19, 2008

  • Regarding Lampbane, I've almost got it -- is the noun possessive?

    May 20, 2008

  • September 7, 2008

  • Now 99 Wordies list it. Who's going to list the fuck of the century. (Can I say that?).

    September 19, 2008

  • September 19, 2008

  • I would list it again if I could. :)

    September 19, 2008

  • I can't see the point of inserting the video here, artb.

    September 19, 2008

  • I am the 99th person to list the word, the song is called "99 problems".

    September 19, 2008

  • Perhaps the video would be better served by being over at 99?

    September 22, 2008

  • Out of the top 100.

    September 27, 2008

  • Bah. It's a far better word than diaphanous if you ask me.

    September 27, 2008

  • I thought the word was from when you had to get permission to have intercourse (because you were only supposed to if you wanted children) and you had to hang a sign on your door while you were saying Fornication Under Consent of the King.

    I don't know if that's correct though, I read it on a radom facts website XD

    September 27, 2008

  • It's an urban legend, Cabbagee!

    September 27, 2008

  • Backronym.

    September 27, 2008

  • Still one of the best fucking words around, is fuck. I once saw a t-shirt that said "Fuck you, you fucking fuck." Hard to find any other words quite as versatile. Also, one of my favorite language-arts books is "English as a Second F*cking Language."

    Cabbagee, I'm afraid it was never true that one had to ask permission of some third party, let alone one's monarch, to have intercourse. (Thank fucking heaven.)

    September 27, 2008

  • ...and now it's again in the top 100.

    September 27, 2008

  • Misspelling of duck.

    September 28, 2008

  • We're laughing, in this room.

    September 28, 2008

  • Right, "f" and "d" are so ducking close on qwerty/z keyboards; that really ducks!

    September 28, 2008

  • Yes, if you try to type "duck" you're liable to miss one direction and type "fuck" or the other and type "suck."

    September 28, 2008

  • Ruckus also has its perils.

    September 28, 2008

  • Yes, it certainly does. So does fugue. Well, for me anyway.

    I wonder if someone has a list for these...

    September 28, 2008

  • Peteyk, the first to list fuck, was also the first to list word.

    September 28, 2008

  • Can we assume that fuck should not be so highly rated because a lot of Wordies meant to list duck or suck?

    September 28, 2008

  • And a high proportion of spam is really about ducks?

    September 28, 2008

  • peteyk also added fish and awordthatisactuallyasentencewithnospaces to their list of 4 words. An eclectic mix? Made a comment on TooHotty's profile ('nice words') and added 4 words, presumably to other lists. Then 'doesn't appear to have done anything recently'.

    It would be interesting to know those other 4 words?

    September 28, 2008

  • I reckon them's were the days before open and shared lists, 'nger'. So if he/she listed 8 and only has 4 on a single list, prolly ghosties.

    Edit: and words on his/her profile!

    September 28, 2008

  • fuck

    word

    is

    a

    smack

    wordthatisactuallyasentencewithnospaces

    fish

    What's the 8th?

    September 28, 2008

  • I certainly meant to list fuck, not duck (which I also like) or suck (which I don't, so much).

    I'm intrigued.

    September 28, 2008

  • lumber, 'gus.

    September 29, 2008

  • more about peteyk: i like simple words

    if you don't then go screw off

    !

    September 29, 2008

  • I think I love peteyk.

    September 29, 2008

  • Yes, telofy, excellent. I missed it first time around.

    September 29, 2008

  • This is how the second syllable of "Norfolk" is pronounced.

    September 30, 2008

  • 42.

    September 30, 2008

  • Who's 42?

    September 30, 2008

  • Should I lie about my age on fuck? *ponders*

    September 30, 2008

  • Who's what?

    September 30, 2008

  • Are you trying to sneak Dara Torres into this conversation, reesetee? As AbraxasZugzwang would quote, were he here, "Fuck me!"

    September 30, 2008

  • In high school, we referred to Norfolk, Virginia as "No-fuck Vagina." As often as we could. We thought it was very funny. Then.

    September 30, 2008

  • Me? I'm not sneaking anything into any conversation. Nuh-uh. Not me.

    September 30, 2008

  • It would be tricky to build up the momentum necessary to jump Dara Torres the 13.75ft into this conversation.

    September 30, 2008

  • Especially right after that turn! (Wait...) Before that turn!

    Skipvia, we locals know that, in the Grand List of Great American Cities, poor No-fuck Vagina always gets the shaft.

    (p.s. I posted that comment before, then deleted it from embarrassment, and then decided if skipvia can make grand fart jokes that live on in legend, and bilby can be obsessed with bear rectums ... recta? ... then modesty be damned!)

    September 30, 2008

  • Eesh. I'm going back to the 42 page. It's so much more pleasant.

    *snort*

    September 30, 2008

  • It's funny that you should mention Dara Torres and 42 in the same conversation, because that's how old she'll be next year.

    Shaft. *hee hee*

    October 1, 2008

  • Really? I had no idea.

    October 1, 2008

  • Skipvia: You're daaamn right.

    Actually, my spawn came home from school one day a few years ago, and told us about a project the kids did on presidents. Spawn chose W. H. Taft, and as a bonus wrote some alternate lyrics to "Shaft." Now, I am unable to look at any list of U.S. presidents without getting to Taft and singing "Taft! He's one baaaaaad motherf-- Shut yo' mouth!"

    Stick that in your Dara Torres and smoke it. Er... I mean... metaphorically.

    October 1, 2008

  • I don't know why I'm reminded of this (yes I do, too) but I suspect you'd appreciate it. On leaving a comment on a blog the other day I was asked to type in an anti-spam word. The word was "lovehaft." I kid you not.

    October 1, 2008

  • Recta? Damn-near killed her. Who's Dara Torres?

    October 1, 2008

  • Dara Torres is a U.S. olympic swimmer who won silver in Bejing at the age of 41. I forget if it was the 50 or the 100 free, but it was a *very* close race for the gold.

    edit: Surprisingly, c_b and I agree on the pronunciation of Norfolk.

    October 1, 2008

  • For some reason I keep thinking Dara Torres is a Star Trek character.

    October 1, 2008

  • You're thinking of B'Elanna, there, yarb.

    Me too, now.

    October 1, 2008

  • I guess so. But I can't stand Voyager, and almost never watch it. The only good character is the holographic doc. The rest make me want to slit my teeth.

    October 1, 2008

  • Are you thinking of Deanna Troi? Meh. I never understood the appeal.

    October 1, 2008

  • No, no, c_b. We went over Deanna before. B'Elanna Torres was on Voyager, which, as yarb correctly posits, blows dead rats.

    October 1, 2008

  • Jennarenn, you'd have to go check out the 42 page to see why we're bringing up Dara Torres. ;-)

    I'm not commenting on Star Trek. Not...commenting....

    October 1, 2008

  • Oh, sorry about that. Well, there you have me: Voyager *does* blow dead rats. 42 of them, to be precise. And to get back on topic here: Fuck Voyager!

    Reesetee... come on... comment on Star Trek. You know you want to! It'll make you feel good! All your friends are doing it! *waves a small Enterprise model under reesetee's nose*

    October 1, 2008

  • *inhales fragrance of small Enterprise model*

    No. No, I can't.

    October 1, 2008

  • Come onnnn... First one's free.

    October 1, 2008

  • Look, my probation officer's all over me as it is. You trying to get me in trouble?

    *inhales*

    October 1, 2008

  • why are people obsessed with slang terms and slang terms referring to sexual activity and the like?

    October 17, 2008

  • The first word you added was clitoridectomy so perhaps you can answer that yourself.

    October 17, 2008

  • 1. Sex is fun.

    2. Sex is good.

    3. Sex is what most people are "obsessed" with anyway so why not words about it?

    4. "Fuck" is far more versatile than just sex.

    5. "Fuck" is a great word.

    6. See bilby's statement.

    October 17, 2008

  • clitoridectomy isn't a slang term

    October 17, 2008

  • And how do you know that was the first word I added?

    October 17, 2008

  • http://wordie.org/people/recent/smrtrthnu

    October 17, 2008

  • 1. I know things. The Oracle's tea leaves are in my compost, dig?

    2. No, not a slang term. But hardly everyday parlance either.

    3. (fanciful) I sense The Pattern. Or maybe it's just late on Friday. You know, if dog years are like 7 human years, then 1 human day is like a dog week. About 6 o'clock on any day for any dog is like Friday. He's not glad you're home, numb nuts, he's just jiving for the weekend. So 6 o'clock on Friday is, wow, ecstasy on a mutton bone. But I'm not a dog. And besides, it's midnight here. Whahaha-burp.

    October 17, 2008

  • Fuck.

    (I just like to say it.)

    October 17, 2008

  • Reading your comment, bilby, for some reasons I had the feeling your eyebrows are burnt.

    (don't ask me why, there is no reason for that)

    October 17, 2008

  • You're using WordiePRO, aren't you?

    October 17, 2008

  • I am reminded of the "Songs of Praise" episode of The Vicar of Dibley. Alice has the Bible reading and is becoming increasingly confused by the descending or "long s" common in ye olde worlde printing.

    ALICE: Ye are the falt of the earth, and fainted. Sainted. Thou shalt feel…seal your endeavours until ye fit on his right hand. Therefore fight the good fight for his…fake, and he shall be thy f…

    VICAR: Succour. "And he shall be thy succour," thank you Alice!

    You really have to watch it, the scene starts around 6:35 on this clip.

    (Incidentally, Alice's reading has nothing with Song of Solomon 6:2 to do. It's more like a portmanteau Bible verse.)

    October 17, 2008

  • Link is bodgy, frin. A bit of wordie.org/words seems to have crept in.

    October 24, 2008

  • Thanks, I've fixed it now. Careless space after "href"…

    October 25, 2008

  • Bewdy.

    It's nigh impossible to imagine this kind of episode without a symphony of f-bombs.

    October 25, 2008

  • Ha!

    October 28, 2008

  • Donnie: You're such a fuck-ass.

    Elizabeth:(laughing) What? Did you just call me a fuck-ass? You can just go suck a fuck!

    Donnie: Please tell me Elizabeth, how exactly does one suck a fuck?

    Elizabeth: You want me to tell you?

    Rose Darko: We will not have THIS at the dinner table.

    Donnie: I'm all ears.

    (Pause)

    Samantha: What's a fuck-ass?

    December 19, 2008

  • You don't have to understand French to get the joke of this bilingual (subtitled) video on the perils of cross-cultural non-communication, but it helps to know that the word for the animal "seal" is ''phoque'', pronounced "fuck". The three-minute clip is funny, not vulgar, with a political point. (There's also an 8-minute version with a lot more "fucks" and ''phoques''.) It trades on a special type of false friends, words that are homophones between languages.

    December 23, 2008

  • Going back to the original comment on this page, here is an interesting article on syntax, etc. of sexual terminology, by Jesse Sheidlower. I reiterate the article's own caveat: "WARNING: This piece contains vulgar language—lots and lots of it—that may be inappropriate for children or the faint of heart."

    October 6, 2009

  • Could the etymology be related to Latin facio? (More on prong)

    October 6, 2009

  • The f-word reviewed.

    January 11, 2010

  • why f-word???

    May 25, 2010

  • Thanks all for your thoughtful contributions. Over two years since the last query: as in no fucking additions to the commentary at all? This can't exhaust the veritable core of planetary evolution. Doesn't anyone remember the dinner time utterance of our horoine at a return to mother's table after a fairly short foray into the crusty world where she unwittingly remarks, " Please mother, pass the fucking risotto." Tedious indeed.

    Puzzled by, "Spam?" below? Me too. Even more so about the reference to "Feeling fancy?" just above. Can't comprehend anything from the entire paragraph. But, I did just discover that wordie.org = wordnik.com

    This being my first visit here I'll admit the commentary seems singularly underwhelming, especially compared to the site's more imaginative exposition. Lately I've been playing at words-brains-means stuff like Personal Brain 7, http://www.visualthesaurus.com/app/view, and... BUT having just discovered "http://www.w3.org/" here, I'm fucking blown right the fuck out of my fucking mind. Go fuckin figure.

    June 5, 2012