OK

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

OK

Wikipedia

English Wikipedia has an article on:

List of proposed etymologies of OK

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• (stressed)
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌəʊˈkeɪ/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌoʊˈkeɪ/

    • Audio (US)

      (file)

• (unstressed)
  • IPA^(key): /əˈkeɪ/
• Rhymes: -eɪ

Etymology 1

Origin disputed. Wikipedia lists many possible etymologies, of which the most widely accepted is that it is an abbreviation of oll/orl korrect, a comical spelling of all correct, which first appeared in print in The Boston Morning Post on March 23, 1839, as part of a fad for similar fanciful abbreviations in the United States during the late 1830s. The expression became popular through its use in the presidential campaign of Martin Van Buren in 1840, who was nicknamed Old Kinderhook, and then slowly acquired other meanings.

The Choctaw word oke, okeh (“it is so”), common in Choctaw translations of the Bible, could also explain OK's variety of affirmative definitions. Additionally, okeh was the most common etymology of okay in dictionaries until the 1960s, and linguistically predates Boston's O.K.. However, this theory suffers from the fact that the Choctaw language was relatively obscure and generally spoken (sometimes in a pidgin form) mainly with African-American slaves.

Alternative forms

• O.K., o.k., ok, okay, O. K., o. k., okeh, okey, okie

Noun

OK (plural OKs or OK's)

1. Endorsement; approval; acceptance; acquiescence.

   We can start as soon as we get the OK.

Synonyms

• (endorsement or approval): approval, endorsement, green light, go-ahead, nod, thumbs up

Antonyms

• NG

Translations

Verb

OK (third-person singular simple present OKs or OK's, present participle OKing or OK'ing, simple past and past participle OKed or OK'd)

1. (transitive) To approve; to accept; to acquiesce to.

   I don't want to OK this amount of money.

2. (transitive, computing) To confirm by activating a button marked OK.
   • 2001, Mike Collins, Pro Tools: Practical Recording, Editing and Mixing for Music Production:

     Type a suitable name for your Marker and OK the dialogue box.

   • 2008, Martin Evening, Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers:

     When you OK the crop, the image size will be adjusted to match the front image resolution.

Synonyms

• approve
• greenlight

Translations

Adjective

OK (comparative more OK, superlative most OK)

1. All right, acceptable, permitted.

   Do you think it's OK to stay here for the night?

2. Satisfactory, reasonably good; not exceptional.

   The soup was OK, but the dessert was excellent.

   • 1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, Little Women: , part second, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC:

     One of us must marry well. Meg didn't, Jo won't, Beth can't yet, so I shall, and make everything okay all round.

3. Satisfied (with); willing to accept a state of affairs.
   • 2012, Roni Jay, The 10 Most Important Things You Can Do For Your Children:

     If you leave the kids in the creche for one morning on your week's holiday, and they are OK with that, then it's fine.

4. In good health or a good emotional state.

   He's not feeling well now, but he should be OK after some rest.

   Are you OK?

   • 2022 October 25, L. J. Shrum, Elena Fumagalli, Tina M. Lowrey, “Coping with loneliness through consumption”, in Journal of Consumer Psychology, volume 33, number 2, →DOI, page 452:

     In France, the French postal service La Poste provides a subscription service in which postal workers visit elderly subscribers to make sure they are okay, do not need anything, and provide brief social interaction.

Synonyms

• (all right, permissible): allowed, all right, permissible
• (satisfactory): adequate, all right, not bad, satisfactory
• (in good health or a good emotional state): fine, well

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of "all right, permissible"): forbidden
• (antonym(s) of "satisfactory"): NG, bad, inadequate, poor, unsatisfactory
• (antonym(s) of "in good health or a good emotional state"): ill, poorly, sick, under the weather, unwell

Translations

Adverb

OK (comparative more OK, superlative most OK)

1. Satisfactorily, sufficiently well.

   The team did OK in the playoffs.

Synonyms

• (satisfactorily): adequately, satisfactorily

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of "satisfactorily"): NG, badly, inadequately, poorly, unsatisfactorily

Translations

Interjection

OK

1. Used to indicate acknowledgement or acceptance.

   Synonyms: okey-dokey, okeh, okey, k, 'kay, m'kay, A-OK, all right

   I promise to give it back. – OK.

   Let's meet again this afternoon. – OK.

   Shut up! – OK, OK.

   OK! I get it! Stop nagging me!

   • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     Come by this afternoon. — Okay.

     Audio (US)

     (file)

2. (computing) Used to dismiss a dialog box or confirm a prompt.
3. Used to introduce a sentence in order to draw attention to the importance of what is being said.

   Synonyms: now, now then

   OK, I'm thinking of a number…

4. Used in turn-taking, serving as a request to the speaker to grant the turn to the interrupter.

   You always do this to me! When we were at your mother’s, you said that… – OK, OK, …

5. Used to sarcastically or sardonically indicate agreement with the previous statement.

Derived terms

• A-okay
• OK please

Translations

Derived terms

Descendants

See also

• oll korrect
• 👌
• Wikipedia article on "okay"
• Wikipedia article on the "OK" hand gesture
• Wikipedia article on "A-OK" and the hand gesture

References

• How 'OK' took over the world, Allan Metcalf, BBC News Magazine (2011 February 18)
• The ‘O’ Word, Roy Blount, Jr., The New York Times Sunday Book Review (2010 November 19)
• OK: The Improbable Story of America's Greatest Word, Allan Metcalf, Oxford University Press (2010)
• Jim Fay (2009 September 16) “The Choctaw Expression "Okeh" and the Americanism "Okay"”, in Illinoisprairie.info‎, archived from the original on 24 December 2010.
• Allen Read, the Expert of 'O.K.,' Dies at 96, Douglas Martin, The New York Times Obituaries (2002 October 18)
• What does "OK" stand for?, Cecil Adams, The Straight Dope (1985)
• “OK”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Etymology 2

Proper noun

OK

1. United States postal abbreviation for Oklahoma, a state of the United States of America.

Alternative forms

• (Oklahoma): OK., Ok., Ok

Synonyms

• (Oklahoma): Oklahoma, Okla, Okla.

Etymology 3

Possibly a shortening of Chinese 卡拉OK. (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

Noun

OK (plural not attested)

1. (Hong Kong) Karaoke.

References

• Patrick J. Cummings, Hans-Georg Wolf (2011) A Dictionary of Hong Kong English: Words from the Fragrant Harbor, Hong Kong University Press, →ISBN, page 126

Anagrams

• KO, Ko, ko

Chinese

Alternative forms

• (Mandarin, one of the ways to transliterate into Chinese characters) 歐克／欧克 (ōukè)
• ok, Ok

Etymology

Borrowed from English OK.

Pronunciation

Adjective

OK

1. (colloquial, sometimes nonstandard) OK

   你OK嗎？／你OK吗？  ―  Nǐ ōukèi ma?  ―  Are you OK?

   你O唔OK呀？ [Cantonese]  ―  nei⁵ ou¹ m⁴ ou¹ kei¹ aa³?   ―  Are you OK?

   • 「70%咖啡OK嗎？」 [MSC, trad.]
     「70%咖啡OK吗？」 [MSC, simp.]

     From: 夏渥客, 11樓 - Page 90

     “70% kāfēi OK ma?”

     "Is 70% coffee alright?"

Interjection

OK

1. (colloquial, sometimes nonstandard) OK

   上頭說OK就OK了。 [MSC, trad.]
   上头说OK就OK了。 [MSC, simp.]

   Shàngtou shuō ōukèi jiù ōukèi le.

   If higher authorities say "OK", it means "OK".

Synonyms

• 好 (hǎo), 好的 (hǎo de), 好吧 (hǎo ba)
• 行 (xíng)

Adverb

OK

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) moderately; fairly

   呢科都OK易㗎。 [Cantonese, trad. and simp.]

   ni¹ fo¹ dou¹ ou¹ kei¹ ji⁶ gaa³.

   This course is fairly easy.

Verb

OK

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) to OK; to approve; to accept
   • 2020, 斗零, 《拍廣吿其實唔難》, Hong Kong: 非凡出版, →ISBN, page 219:

     第一，香港廣吿嘅製作時間短，尤其係後製時間，基本上由決定拍廣吿到廣吿見街，平均都係一個月左右，而CG（電腦動畫）通常係要客戶ok咗個初剪版本（rough cut）先會開始做，所以即係得一個星期左右，咁係完全唔夠時間。 [Cantonese, trad.]
     第一，香港广告嘅制作时间短，尤其系后制时间，基本上由决定拍广告到广告见街，平均都系一个月左右，而CG（电脑动画）通常系要客户ok咗个初剪版本（rough cut）先会开始做，所以即系得一个星期左右，咁系完全唔够时间。 [Cantonese, simp.]

     dai⁶ jat¹, hoeng¹ gong² gwong² gou³ ge³ zai³ zok³ si⁴ gaan³ dyun², jau⁴ kei⁴ hai⁶ hau⁶ zai³ si⁴ gaan³, gei¹ bun² soeng⁶ jau⁴ kyut³ ding⁶ paak³ gwong² gou³ dou³ gwong² gou³ gin³ gaai¹, ping⁴ gwan¹ dou¹ hai⁶ jat¹ go³ jyut⁶ zo² jau^6-2, ji⁴ CG (din⁶ nou⁵ dung⁶ waa^6-2) tung¹ soeng⁴ hai⁶ jiu³ haak³ wu⁶ ou¹ kei¹ zo² go³ co¹ zin² baan² bun² (rough cut) sin¹ wui⁵ hoi¹ ci² zou⁶, so² ji⁵ zik¹ hai⁶ dak¹ jat¹ go³ sing¹ kei⁴ zo² jau^6-2, gam² hai⁶ jyun⁴ cyun⁴ m⁴ gau³ si⁴ gaan³.

     First, the production time of advertisements in Hong Kong is short, especially for post-production, where basically, from deciding to shoot an ad to the ad hitting the streets, it is on average about one month. As for CG (computer graphics), usually we would only start the project after our client OKs the rough cut, so it's just about one week's time, which is definitely not enough time.

See also

• 卡拉OK (kǎlā'ōukèi)
• OK繃／OK绷 (ōukēibèng)

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /oːˈkaː/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

OK f (plural OK's)

1. Abbreviation of operatiekamer.

Descendants

• → Indonesian: OK

Finnish

Etymology

< English OK

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈokei̯/,
• IPA^(key): /ˈoːkoː/,

Adjective

OK

1. Alternative form of okei

Interjection

OK

1. Alternative form of okei
2. (computing) OK (in buttons, etc.)

   Synonym: (uncommon) selvä

Further reading

• “OK”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-03

French

Alternative forms

• o’ kay, okay, O. K.

Etymology

Borrowed from English OK.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔk/, /ɔ.ke/

• Audio

  (file)

• Audio (CAN)

  (file)

Interjection

OK

1. OK (endorsement; approval)

   Synonyms: d’accord, entendu

Indonesian

Etymology

From Dutch operatiekamer of operatie (“surgery”) +‎ kamer (“room”).

Noun

OK (first-person possessive OKku, second-person possessive OKmu, third-person possessive OKnya)

1. (healthcare, colloquial) operating theatre, operating room.

   Synonym: kamar bedah

Japanese

Etymology

Borrowed from English OK.

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) オ​ーケー (Atamadaka – )
• (Tokyo) オー​ケー (Nakadaka – )
• (Tokyo) オーケ​ー (Nakadaka – )
• IPA^(key):

• (Tokyo) オ​ッケー (Atamadaka – )
• IPA^(key):

Noun

OK(オーケー) or OK(オッケー) • (ōkē or okkē) 

1. agreement; approval; okay
   • 2009 January 10, Tsugumi Ohba with Obata, Takeshi, “３ページ ペンとネーム [Page 3: Pens and Names]”, in BAKUMAN(バクマン)。, volume 1 (fiction), Tokyo: Shueisha, →ISBN, page 104:

     マンガの下(した)描(が)きみたいなもん　まずこれを描(か)いて編(へん)集(しゅう)者(しゃ)に見(み)せてＯ(オー)Ｋ(ケー)が出(で)たら初(はじ)めて原(げん)稿(こう)にできるＯ(オー)Ｋ(ケー)が出(で)るまでは何(なん)度(ど)でも描(か)き直(なお)し　もっともネームで見(み)せていいのはマンガ家(か)としての才(さい)能(のう)を認(みと)められた奴(やつ)な

     Manga no shitagaki mitai na mon Mazu kore o kaite henshūsha ni misete ōkē ga detara hajimete genkō ni dekiru ōkē ga deru made wa nando demo kakinaoshi Motto mo nēmu de misete ii no wa mangaka toshite no sainō o mitomerareta yatsu na

     It’s basically a rough sketch for manga. First you make one and show it to the editor, and only if it’s okayed can you go ahead with the draft. You may have to do it over a couple of times till it gets the okay. Though good mangaka can just pass with the name alone.

2. no problem

   電(でん)子(し)レンジＯ(オー)Ｋ(ケー)のお皿(さら)

   denshi renji ōkē no o-sara

   microwave-safe plates

Antonyms

• N(エヌ)G(ジー) (enujī)

Adjective

OK(オーケー) or OK(オッケー) • (ōkē or okkē) -na (adnominal OK(オーケー)な (ōkē na), adverbial OK(オーケー)に (ōkē ni))

1. OK; all right; fine

Interjection

OK(オーケー) or OK(オッケー) • (ōkē or okkē) 

1. OK
   • 2009 August 25, Kozue Amano, “第(だい)２(に)話(わ) 夢(ゆめ)ヶ丘(おか)高(こう)校(こう)”, in [あまんちゅ](ＡＭＡＮＣＨＵ)！, volume 1 (fiction), Tokyo: Mag Garden, →ISBN, pages 33–38:

     その１(いち)「準(じゅん)備(び)」っ　Ｏ(オッ)Ｋ(ケー)‼その２(に)「位(い)置(ち)」っ　お家(うち)の玄(げん)関(かん)　Ｏ(オッ)Ｋ(ケー)‼その３(さん)「時(じ)間(かん)」っ　７(しち)時(じ)３０(さんじゅっ)分(ぷん)　Ｏ(オッ)Ｋ(ケー)‼その４(よん)「空(くう)気(かん)」っ…………ピッ　Ｏ(オッ)Ｋ(ケー)‼その５(ご)「行(こう)動(どう)」っ　レッツらゴ——！Ｏ(オッ)Ｋ(ケー)‼

     Sono ichi “Junbi”h okkē!! Sono ni “Ichi”h o-uchi no genkan okkē!! Sono san “Jikan”h shichiji sanjuppun okkē!! Sono yon “Kūkan”h... pih okkē!! Sono go “Kōdō”h rettsu ra gō—! Okkē!!

     Number 1 “Preparation”, check!! Number 2 “Location”: Entryway, check!! Number 3 “Time”: 7:30, check!! Number 4 “Air”... Hwee, check!! Number 5 “Action”: Let’s la gooo! Check!!

References

Korean

Etymology

From English OK.

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key):
• Phonetic hangul:

Noun

OK • (okei) (hangeul 오케이)

1. (colloquial) good

Antonyms

• NG

Interjection

OK • (okei) (hangeul 오케이)

1. (colloquial) OK

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• ok, Ok

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English OK.

Pronunciation

Interjection

OK

1. OK (indicates acknowledgement or acceptance)

   Synonyms: tudo bem, certo, tá

Noun

OK m (plural OKs)

1. OK (an indication of acknowledgement or acceptance)

Swedish

Adverb

OK

1. OK, okay

   Synonym: okej

Adjective

OK

1. OK, okay

   Synonym: okej

Interjection

OK

1. OK, okay

   Synonym: okej

References

• OK in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• OK in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• OK in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Anagrams

• ko

Vietnamese

Alternative forms

• ô kê

Etymology

From English OK.

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key):
• (Huế) IPA^(key):
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key):
• Phonetic: ô kê

Interjection

OK

1. (informal) OK, okay (acknowledgement or acceptance)
2. (computing) OK, okay (dismissal of a dialog box or confirmation of a prompt)

Synonyms

• (acknowledgement or acceptance): ờ, ừ, ừm
• (dismissal of a dialog box or confirmation of a prompt): được

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of "dismissal of a dialog box or confirmation of a prompt"): hủy bỏ, hủy, thôi

Anagrams

• ko