kook
Americannoun
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an eccentric, strange, or foolish person.
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an insane person.
noun
Etymology
Origin of kook
First recorded in 1955–60; perhaps alteration of cuckoo
Explanation
A kook is a nut or a weirdo — in other words, an eccentric person. Your favorite aunt might be a bit of a kook, with her crazy hair and wild outfits. The class clown in school is often a kook, saying nutty things in order to get attention, and you may think of the guy in your town who always holds a sign saying, "THE END IS NEAR" as a kook too. The word comes from kooky, "strange," probably stemming from cuckoo, which is a type of bird but also slang for "mad or insane person."
Vocabulary lists containing kook
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.
Yet the individual set pieces were so vivid and funny and weird that the tale became one about Gaga’s embrace of her role as music’s greatest kook.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 12, 2025
They called her a kook and a mystic.
From Slate • May 10, 2024
Martell said she blew off his calls because she thought he was "a kook."
From Salon • Apr. 1, 2024
"The kook in me recognises the kook in you," she added.
From BBC • May 31, 2023
That dog was probably the only thing that the kook had ever really had in his life.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
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.
