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ribaldry

/ˈɹɪb.əl.dɹi/noun

ribaldry is a noun meaning “Joking or humorous language or behaviour used in a vulgar or lewd fashion” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-I-B-A-L-D-R-Y and has 3 syllables, and it appears about once in every 49 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of ribaldry is ribaldries.

What does ribaldry mean?

noun

  1. 1

    Joking or humorous language or behaviour used in a vulgar or lewd fashion.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce ribaldry?

  • US /ˈɹɪb.əl.dɹi/

Ribaldry has 3 syllables (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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Neøn-ribaldry.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of ribaldry

  • ribaldries plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is ribaldry?

Ribaldry appears about once in every 49 million words in written English, the 217,360th 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).

Ribaldry in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

In the sense humorous language or behaviour:

LanguageWords
Frenchgrivoiserie, paillardise, polissonnerie, ribauderie
GermanPossenspiel, Zote, Kramanzen, Gaukelwerk, Anzüglichkeit
Spanishprocacidad, procacidades

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 ribaldry come from?

From Middle English ribaldrie, from Old French ribaulderie, ribauderie, equivalent to ribald + -ry.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).