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
“The song immediately came to my mind when I read it, and I laughed out loud in my car so loud, like a huge dork, and it was fantastic.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2025
But worst of all, maybe, would be that I’d look like an irredeemable dork.
From Slate ● Sep. 26, 2024
“Please, Piper? Do it for every kid that Ainsley Braden-Hammerschmidt ever called a dork or a nerd.”
From "Shine!" by J.J. and Chris Grabenstein
They’re practically statesmen compared with the dorks of yore.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 18, 2026
We’re still shocked by the spin that Bessent and these other dorks have been issuing since the “pause” to claim that everything is going according to plan.
From Slate ● Apr. 12, 2025
While Cody was a fan of Whale’s “Bride of Frankenstein,” she also took inspiration from John Hughes’ 1985 comedy “Weird Science,” about dorks building a dream girl.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 9, 2024
In the eyes of a computer, we're all just dorks.
From Salon ● Dec. 9, 2022
“Fightings never the answer; hasn’t anyone ever told you dorks that?”
From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon
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.
