luke
/l(j)uːk/adjective
luke is spelled L-U-K-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 28 times per million words in written English, the 3,288th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Luke, the name). As an adjective, luke means “lukewarm” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in luke?
| Letters | 4: L-U-K-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 28 times per million words; the 3,288th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is luke?
Luke appears 28 times per million words in written English, the 3,288th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Luke, the name.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce luke?
- /l(j)uːk/
- /lɪu̯k/
Luke 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).
What does luke mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
lukewarm
Then one of them turned coward on account of the exceeding chill, cast away his faith, and desired to bathe himself in the luke water, and turned from his companions; but he died as soon as he touched the water, and the warmness was turned
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does luke come from?
From Middle English leuȝke, leuk, leuke, lewk, lewke, louk, luk, luke, lheuc, probably from Old English *hlēoc beside hlēow- (whence lew); compare rēoc and rēow, slēac and unslēaw, etc. Alternatively, perhaps from a verb, Old English *hlēowcian, *hlīewcian (“to make tepid or lukewarm”), whence possibly Middle English leuken (“to make lukewarm”). Compare also Dutch leuk (“lukewarm”), West Frisian lûk (“sly, clever”), Low German luuk (“lively, cheerful", also "lukewarm, dull, indifferent”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).