woke
Americanverb
adjective
-
having or marked by an active awareness of systemic injustices and prejudices, especially those involving the treatment of ethnic, racial, or sexual minorities: He took one African American history class and now he thinks he’s woke.
In light of incidents of police brutality, it’s important to stay woke.
He took one African American history class and now he thinks he’s woke.
This generation of kids is trying to make woke choices in life.
-
Disparaging. as used by political opponents, of or relating to a liberal progressive orthodoxy.
-
Slang. aware of the facts, true situation, etc. (sometimes used facetiously).
Stay woke—always read a contract before you sign it, and know your rights.
-
awake.
I had to drink lots of coffee this morning to stay woke.
verb
Usage
What else does woke mean? Woke means being conscious of racial discrimination in society and other forms of oppression and injustice. In mainstream use, woke can also more generally describe someone or something as being "with it."
Other Word Forms
- unwoke adjective
- wokeism noun
- wokeness noun
- wokism noun
Etymology
Origin of woke
First recorded before 900 as past tense woke ( for def. 1 ); 1960–65 woke ( for defs. 2, 4 ), popularized by the Black civil rights movement and later by Black Lives Matter
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.
Ground teams woke them a bit after 7 a.m.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 2, 2026
She said she woke up feeling sick, sluggish and heavy.
From BBC • Mar. 26, 2026
Silva woke up at 5 a.m. last Wednesday to travel from her Las Vegas home to Death Valley National Park, hoping to beat the heat and the crowds to the superbloom.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 26, 2026
People talk about your audience as a kind of woke manosphere.
From Slate • Mar. 25, 2026
But this time, there’d be no Pili to stop the big kids from stealing his socks or to talk to after he woke up from a nightmare.
From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova
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.
