noun
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a stupid or incompetent person
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a penis
Pop Culture
— King Dork: A coming-of-age novel by Frank Portman, first published in 2006. —Son of Dork: A pop punk band from the U.K. — Dork Tower: An online comic by John Kovalic.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of dork
First recorded in 1960–65; origin uncertain; perhaps a variant of dirk ( def. ), influenced by dick ( def. )
Compare meaning
How does dork compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A dork is a socially inept person. If you started dancing the polka at a hip-hop club, you might well expect to hear "man, what a dork." Dork is one of many unkind names for the awkward or unpopular kids in school. Some others include dweeb, geek, goober, nerd, and weenie (try repeating that list really fast ten times). Most of these are not names you’d want to be called, although geek can denote a certain sense of pride in one’s uncoolness, or a proficiency in something useful.
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.
See Examples For:
If I looked like a dork, at least I could zoom quickly past the judgment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
I had graduated from weird dork to cool kid.
From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2025
He doesn’t seem to be acting like a dork for the sake of views, or to trick us into believing his falsities.
From Slate ● Dec. 17, 2024
Spanto was guilty of being a dork whenever he hung out with me.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2024
As the years went by, Webb found other members of his own species—a dork here, a nerd there.
From "Crash" by Jerry Spinelli
They’re practically statesmen compared with the dorks of yore.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 18, 2026
“Film is what this city was built on,” added Bryant, “And who built it? A bunch of annoying dorks like us.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 23, 2025
At bottom, though, Rogen’s movies are sweet, fumbling love stories about sweet, fumbling dorks, and this has helped them age well.
From New York Times ● Apr. 20, 2021
Life, as the Twitter dorks say, comes at you fast.
From Salon ● Mar. 17, 2020
We want to kiss each other good-bye, but instead we wave like awkward dorks and get into our cars and drive away in different directions.
From "Ask the Passengers" by A.S. King
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.
