dank
Americanadjective
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unpleasantly moist or humid; damp and, often, chilly.
a dank cellar.
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Slang. (of marijuana) excellent; high quality.
There was plenty of booze and dank weed at the party.
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Slang. (of an internet meme) passé or clichéd; out of touch; having missed the cultural Zeitgeist.
noun
adjective
Usage
What else does dank mean? When not describing something as "moist" and "humid" like a basement, dank is a slang term describing something as "excellent," especially marijuana. Dank can also refer to memes that are played out or extremely weird.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of dank
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English probably from Scandinavian; compare dialectal Swedish dänka, Norwegian dynke “to moisten,” cognate with Old Norse dǫkk “water hole”
Explanation
You can describe something that is unpleasantly cool, damp, and clammy as dank. If you have ever visited a cave or an unfinished basement, you know how a dank place feels. Yuck. The adjective dank is often used to describe places that would have moist or damp walls. A dank cave can provide hundreds of bats shelter, but you probably wouldn't want to visit them. Tunnels can also be choice dank locations: "The tunnel under the harbor was always dank, and the workers constantly had to battle mold and lichen on the tile walls." One way to remember dank's meaning is to think of dark since they share three letters and seem to go together; a dank place is often a dark one as well.
Vocabulary lists containing dank
"The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell
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The Pearl
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"Rogue Wave" by Theodore Taylor
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“God it’s cold and dank here! Wish I was still a pet in your family!”
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 4, 2026
More time spent scrolling dank memes and reels on social media or bingeing the “King of the Hill” reboot on Hulu means less time for the latest pick from Oprah’s Book Club.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 20, 2025
It reveals a gutted warehouse with rickety metal stairs leading into a dark dank basement.
From BBC • Dec. 17, 2024
Clustered in a dank, darkened corridor offstage, members of the chorus drew themselves up, preparing to burst into song.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 26, 2024
Greyback unlocked it with a tap of his wand, then forced them into a dank and musty room and left them in total darkness.
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
