fork
/fɔɹk/noun, verb
fork is spelled F-O-R-K: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,784th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, fork means “A utensil with spikes used to put solid food into the mouth, or to hold food down while cutting, or for serving food” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of fork is forks.
How many letters and syllables are in fork?
| Letters | 4: F-O-R-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 11 times per million words; the 6,784th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is fork?
Fork appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,784th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce fork?
- UK /fɔːk/
- US /fɔɹk/
- US [fo̞ɹk]
Fork has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-a_fork.ogg, En-us-fork.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with fork?
8 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as fork from its last stressed vowel (/ɔɹk/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of fork
- forks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- forking participle, present
- forked participle, past
- forcque
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does fork mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A utensil with spikes used to put solid food into the mouth, or to hold food down while cutting, or for serving food.
- 2
Any of several types of pronged tools for use on farms, in fields, or in the garden or lawn, such as a smaller hand fork for weeding or a larger one for turning over the soil.
- 3
Such a pronged tool having a long straight handle, generally for two-handed use, as used for digging, lifting, mucking, pitching, etc.
- 4
A tuning fork.
- 5
An intersection in a road or path where one road is split into two.
- 6
A decision point.
- 7
A point where a waterway, such as a river or other stream, splits and flows into two (or more) different directions.
- 8
One of the parts into which anything is furcated or divided; a prong; a branch of a stream, a road, etc.; a barbed point, as of an arrow.
a thunderbolt with three forks
- 9
The bottom of a sump into which the water of a mine drains.
verb
- 1
To divide into two or more branches or copies.
A road, a tree, or a stream forks.
- 2
To spawn a new child process by duplicating the existing process.
- 3
To launch a separate software development effort based upon a modified copy of an existing software project, especially in free and open-source software.
- 4
To create a copy of a distributed version control repository.
- 5
To move with a fork (as hay or food).
- 6
To apply a fork to.
forking the soil
- 7
UKTo kick someone in the crotch.
- 8
To shoot into blades, as corn does.
- 9
To bale a shaft dry.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Fork in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | fourche , fourchette , bifurcation |
| German | Gabel, Forke, Gable , Gabelung, Verzweigung , sich gabeln |
| Portuguese | forcado , garfo , bifurcação , encruzilhada |
| Spanish | horca, trinche , tenedor, trinchante, forqueta , bifurcarse |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does fork come from?
From Middle English forke (“digging fork”), from Old English force, forca (“forked instrument used to torture”), from Proto-West Germanic *furkō (“fork”), from Latin furca (“pitchfork, forked stake; gallows, beam, stake, support post, yoke”), of uncertain origin. The Middle English word was later reinforced by Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French forque (= Old French forche whence French fourche), also from the Latin. Doublet of fourche and furcate. Cognate also with North Frisian forck (“fork”), Dutch vork (“fork”), Danish fork (“fork”), German Forke (“pitchfork”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).