dank

[ dangk ]

adjective

, dank·er, dank·est.

1. unpleasantly moist or humid; damp and, often, chilly:

   a dank cellar.

   Synonyms: soggy, sticky, muggy, clammy, wet

2. Slang. (of marijuana) excellent; high quality:

   There was plenty of booze and dank weed at the party.

3. Slang. (of an internet meme) passé or clichéd; out of touch; having missed the cultural Zeitgeist.

noun

1. Slang. high-quality marijuana:

   We were just chilling out and smoking dank together.

dank

/ dæŋk /

adjective

1. (esp of cellars, caves, etc) unpleasantly damp and chilly

Derived Forms

• ˈdankness, noun
• ˈdankly, adverb

Other Words From

• dankly adverb
• dankness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of dank¹

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”

Word History and Origins

Origin of dank¹

C14: probably of Scandinavian origin; compare Swedish dank marshy spot

Example Sentences

The dwarves abandoned the mines, and the dank, dark place came to be known as Moria.

From Time

Multiple reports published this week showed San Diego’s sunshine and dank waves are not enough to keep up with soaring housing and energy prices.

From Voice of San Diego

Simmering with anger and frustration, Marie is packed off to the dank, depressing convent, a place of famine, starvation and nuns who are not altogether welcoming.

From Time

Woe betide anyone working out next to me, sharing my dank microclimate.

From Outside Online

Neither do “dampish,” “dank” or “wettish,” which are the other alternatives offered by Merriam-Webster.

From Washington Post

She suffered no more beatings—just solitary confinement in an underground cell always dark and dank and cockroach-infested.

From The Daily Beast

It was dark, dank, the walls charcoal-colored, the feeling of a cave.

From The Daily Beast

Bodies in mortuaries, bodies in ponds, bodies under houses, and in dank boarding houses.

From The Daily Beast

Next thing he knows, the rebel is waking up in a dank cave centuries later.

From The Daily Beast

“It was dark and dank and the children were rarely, if ever, taken outside,” Wright notes.

From The Daily Beast

She sank back on the dank floor of the cave and buried her face in her dirt-stained hands.

From Project Gutenberg

The dank vapours of Covent Garden are sweet in the nostrils of many a cockney reveller.

From Project Gutenberg

He charged up the canyon, fumbling in his parka for more shells, and crashed through dank high brush into a shadowy clearing.

From Project Gutenberg

Barnacles had fastened upon the hull, and long tresses of green, dank seaweed hung trailing from the iron paddle-wheels.

From Project Gutenberg

His face, which bore traces of more than common beauty, was now white and pinched; his hair hung dank about his forehead.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• chilly
• damp
• humid
• muggy
• steamy
• sticky
• wet

About This Word

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.

Where did the term dank come from?

The adjective dank is evidenced in Middle English in the 1300s. Then, as now, dank describes places that are unpleasantly moist and humid, such as cellars and caves.

In the 1980s, dank emerged as slang for something “excellent.” Slang has a way of making negative words positive (e.g., bad, sick, ill, or wicked). In the 1990s, dank especially came to characterize high-quality marijuana, the usage perhaps additionally influenced by the fact that marijuana can be pungent and moist.

Dank meme came about in 2013 on internet message boards like 4chan and Reddit dedicated to making parodies of existing memes and mocking meme culture in general. The use of dank here is ironic, as so-called dank memes are so bad (or downright strange) that they’re somehow good.

How to use the term dank

Basements can be dank. So can bada**es and bud. Dank-a** is a fairly common intensified form.

Stocked up on some dank coffee while I was out in Seattle omg my mornings just got 10x better 😭

— ION (@ion_trapndub) September 12, 2018

OH boi They doing friday fortnite for un famous people you just need to qualify so u can compete with all the pros that's dank

— JackShorey (@Jackshorey) June 3, 2019

Dank is often specifically used to describe food as “very delicious” or a person as “sexy” and “awesome.”

Shit was so dank pic.twitter.com/RNDlLbExQZ

— StinkyPeeete (@StinkyPeeete) January 22, 2020

When it comes to marijuana, dank can both describe it and refer to the weed itself. And when it comes to memes, dank can both characterize a meme past its prime or one that is just so bizarre that it’s actually funny.

Reelaty #dankmemes pic.twitter.com/Qpwoq1AIEa

— Dank Meme Bot (@DankMemesBot420) January 22, 2020

Note

This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the term’s history, meaning, and usage.