joe
noun
joe
1 American
[joh]
/ dʒoʊ /
noun
Informal.
Joe
2
American
[joh]
/ dʒoʊ /
noun
Joes
plural
-
(sometimes lowercase) fellow; guy.
the average Joe who works for a living.
-
Informal. a personification of a typical, often unprepossessing representative of an occupation, personality trait, state of being, etc., that is expressed, sometimes metonymically, as a mock surname.
Joe Lunchbucket working hard at some factory and paying his taxes year after year; political con artists relying on the gullibility of Joe Schmo.
-
a male given name, form of Joseph.
Joe
British
/ dʒəʊ /
noun
-
a man or fellow
-
a GI; soldier
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of joe
First recorded in 1840–50; of uncertain origin
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:
Staples at taverns across the state, Maid-Rites more closely resemble the sloppy joe of school lunchrooms: the ground-beef sandwiches are served on a soft bun and topped with mustard, pickles and raw onions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
One roaster’s ride on the roller coaster of coffee pricing helps explain the many reasons consumers keep paying more for a cup of joe.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 30, 2026
I get palpitations just thinking about drinking four entire cups of joe, but of course, coffee isn't the only source of caffeine.
From Salon ● Jan. 7, 2024
The menu at Table 219 was a mélange of fun twists on classic dishes; duck confit nachos and sloppy joe sliders, for instance.
From Seattle Times ● May 24, 2023
For joe, the moment of epiphany came on the eighty-sixth floor of the new Empire State Building.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
It was shouted by Joe Biden as he visited his ancestral home in Ballina.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
“The supply, structurally, should keep yields elevated,” said Joe Boyle, head of asset-class specialists at Hartford Funds.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
“And Joe has opened a lot of doors for us.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026
The crew also filmed Graham as he talked in March with Jake Sullivan, who was national security adviser under President Joe Biden, about the challenges of working with the Trump administration on Middle East negotiations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
Joe knew why: His brother loved being right.
From "A Monster of a Mystery (The Hardy Boys: Secret Files, #5)" by Franklin W. Dixon
And then we look at how regular Joes and Janes could invest in the assets the pros are avoiding using regular, low-cost exchange-traded funds.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 13, 2026
"They are a bunch of guys that never quit. You can call them the Average Joes but I say they are the Above Average Joes."
From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2025
That leaves average Joes at a growing risk of being impersonated online, with little recourse.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2025
In some of Simpson’s later ads, average Janes and Joes cheered him on as he ran, yelling, “Go, O.J., Go!”
From New York Times ● Apr. 11, 2024
Joes with on the floor of my mom’s hair salon.
From "Where Things Come Back" by John Corey Whaley
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.
