See eff in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_number": 1,
"etymology_text": "A spelling of the letter f (also spelled ef), the initial letter of the vulgar term fuck. Compare pee.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "effs",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "effing",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "effed",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "effed",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "eff (third-person singular simple present effs, present participle effing, simple past and past participle effed)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English euphemisms",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
}
],
"derived": [
{
"word": "eff all"
},
{
"word": "eff and blind"
},
{
"word": "eff and jeff"
},
{
"word": "effing"
},
{
"word": "eff off"
},
{
"word": "eff up"
},
{
"word": "what the eff"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Eff off!",
"type": "example"
},
{
"text": "And he kept saying, \"Effing this, effing that.\"",
"type": "example"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Fuck (the taboo swear word, but not in the sense \"to copulate\")"
],
"id": "en-eff-en-verb-pWIfgWpZ",
"links": [
[
"Fuck",
"fuck"
],
[
"swear word",
"swear word"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(euphemistic, slang) Fuck (the taboo swear word, but not in the sense \"to copulate\")"
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "feck"
},
{
"word": "frak"
},
{
"word": "frig"
},
{
"word": "funk"
}
],
"tags": [
"euphemistic",
"slang"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"enpr": "ĕf"
},
{
"ipa": "/ɛf/"
},
{
"rhymes": "-ɛf"
},
{
"homophone": "f"
}
],
"word": "eff"
}
{
"etymology_number": 2,
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ineffable"
},
"expansion": "Back-formation from ineffable",
"name": "backformation"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Back-formation from ineffable",
"forms": [
{
"form": "effs",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "effing",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "effed",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "effed",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "eff (third-person singular simple present effs, present participle effing, simple past and past participle effed)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "15 15 70",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "16 15 69",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 6 entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "14 14 72",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English back-formations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:",
"text": "[…] and perhaps also because what we know partakes in no small measure of the nature of what has so happily been called the unutterable or ineffable, so that any attempt to utter or eff it is doomed to fail, doomed, doomed to fail.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2001, Paul West, Master Class: Scenes from a Fiction Workshop, page 57:",
"text": "They, no more than we, found it hard to eff the ineffable, but they, you see, needed to console themselves more.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2018, Wesley J. Wildman, Effing the Ineffable: Existential Mumblings at the Limits of Language, page 83:",
"text": "It is another way of effing the ineffable, one with potentially serious practical effects.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2020, Tim Vivian, Other Voices, Other Rooms: Poems, page 100:",
"text": "Douglas Adams (1952–2001), author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, puts it memorably: “Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.”",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To put into words; to express."
],
"id": "en-eff-en-verb-3kiOCM6u",
"links": [
[
"put into words",
"put into words"
],
[
"express",
"express"
]
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"enpr": "ĕf"
},
{
"ipa": "/ɛf/"
},
{
"rhymes": "-ɛf"
},
{
"homophone": "f"
}
],
"word": "eff"
}
{
"etymology_number": 3,
"forms": [
{
"form": "effs",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "eff (plural effs)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"alt_of": [
{
"extra": "the name of the Latin-script letter F/f",
"word": "ef"
}
],
"categories": [
{
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Latin letter names",
"orig": "en:Latin letter names",
"parents": [
"Letter names",
"Letters, symbols, and punctuation",
"Names",
"Orthography",
"All topics",
"Proper nouns",
"Terms by semantic function",
"Writing",
"Fundamental",
"Nouns",
"Human behaviour",
"Language",
"Lemmas",
"Human",
"Communication"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"derived": [
{
"word": "effell"
},
{
"word": "eff why eye"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "a. 1746 (date written), Jonathan Swift, “On the Irish Club”, in Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols, editors, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, […], new edition, volume VIII, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1801, →OCLC, page 78:",
"text": "Why against printers all this noise? This summoning of blackguard boys? Why so sagacious in your guesses? Your effs, and tees, and arrs, and eſſes? Take my advice; to make you safe, I know a shorter way be half.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1969, Michael Feld, The Sabbatical Year, London: Alan Ross Ltd, page 301:",
"text": "‘Eff. You. En,’ said Mr Banstead. ‘Fun![…]’",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2019, Amy Einsohn, Marilyn Schwartz, “[Abbreviations and Symbols] Abbreviations”, in The Copyeditor’s Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications, 4th edition, University of California Press, →ISBN, part 2 (Editorial Style), page 242:",
"text": "A or an? When an indefinite article precedes an acronym or initialism, the choice between a and an follows from the pronunciation: / a FAQ file (“fack”; but “an FAQ file” with the alternate pronunciation “eff-ay-cue”) / an FTC commissioner (“eff-tee-cee”)",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2019, Anand Ranganathan, Chitra Subramaniam, The Rat Eater, Bloomsbury India, →ISBN:",
"text": "‘S-S-C…sitting on a tree…eff-you-cee-kay-i-en-ji.’",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Alternative spelling of ef; the name of the Latin-script letter F/f."
],
"id": "en-eff-en-noun-mhKgFhMy",
"links": [
[
"ef",
"ef#English"
],
[
"F",
"F#English"
],
[
"f",
"f#English"
]
],
"tags": [
"alt-of",
"alternative"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"enpr": "ĕf"
},
{
"ipa": "/ɛf/"
},
{
"rhymes": "-ɛf"
},
{
"homophone": "f"
}
],
"word": "eff"
}
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English nouns",
"English spelled-out initialisms",
"English terms with homophones",
"English verbs",
"Pages with 6 entries",
"Pages with entries",
"Rhymes:English/ɛf",
"Rhymes:English/ɛf/1 syllable"
],
"derived": [
{
"word": "eff all"
},
{
"word": "eff and blind"
},
{
"word": "eff and jeff"
},
{
"word": "effing"
},
{
"word": "eff off"
},
{
"word": "eff up"
},
{
"word": "what the eff"
}
],
"etymology_number": 1,
"etymology_text": "A spelling of the letter f (also spelled ef), the initial letter of the vulgar term fuck. Compare pee.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "effs",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "effing",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "effed",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "effed",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "eff (third-person singular simple present effs, present participle effing, simple past and past participle effed)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English euphemisms",
"English slang",
"English terms with usage examples"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Eff off!",
"type": "example"
},
{
"text": "And he kept saying, \"Effing this, effing that.\"",
"type": "example"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Fuck (the taboo swear word, but not in the sense \"to copulate\")"
],
"links": [
[
"Fuck",
"fuck"
],
[
"swear word",
"swear word"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(euphemistic, slang) Fuck (the taboo swear word, but not in the sense \"to copulate\")"
],
"tags": [
"euphemistic",
"slang"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"enpr": "ĕf"
},
{
"ipa": "/ɛf/"
},
{
"rhymes": "-ɛf"
},
{
"homophone": "f"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "feck"
},
{
"word": "frak"
},
{
"word": "frig"
},
{
"word": "funk"
}
],
"word": "eff"
}
{
"categories": [
"English back-formations",
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English nouns",
"English spelled-out initialisms",
"English terms with homophones",
"English verbs",
"Pages with 6 entries",
"Pages with entries",
"Rhymes:English/ɛf",
"Rhymes:English/ɛf/1 syllable"
],
"etymology_number": 2,
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ineffable"
},
"expansion": "Back-formation from ineffable",
"name": "backformation"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Back-formation from ineffable",
"forms": [
{
"form": "effs",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "effing",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "effed",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "effed",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "eff (third-person singular simple present effs, present participle effing, simple past and past participle effed)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:",
"text": "[…] and perhaps also because what we know partakes in no small measure of the nature of what has so happily been called the unutterable or ineffable, so that any attempt to utter or eff it is doomed to fail, doomed, doomed to fail.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2001, Paul West, Master Class: Scenes from a Fiction Workshop, page 57:",
"text": "They, no more than we, found it hard to eff the ineffable, but they, you see, needed to console themselves more.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2018, Wesley J. Wildman, Effing the Ineffable: Existential Mumblings at the Limits of Language, page 83:",
"text": "It is another way of effing the ineffable, one with potentially serious practical effects.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2020, Tim Vivian, Other Voices, Other Rooms: Poems, page 100:",
"text": "Douglas Adams (1952–2001), author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, puts it memorably: “Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.”",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To put into words; to express."
],
"links": [
[
"put into words",
"put into words"
],
[
"express",
"express"
]
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"enpr": "ĕf"
},
{
"ipa": "/ɛf/"
},
{
"rhymes": "-ɛf"
},
{
"homophone": "f"
}
],
"word": "eff"
}
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English nouns",
"English spelled-out initialisms",
"English terms with homophones",
"Pages with 6 entries",
"Pages with entries",
"Rhymes:English/ɛf",
"Rhymes:English/ɛf/1 syllable"
],
"derived": [
{
"word": "effell"
},
{
"word": "eff why eye"
}
],
"etymology_number": 3,
"forms": [
{
"form": "effs",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "eff (plural effs)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"alt_of": [
{
"extra": "the name of the Latin-script letter F/f",
"word": "ef"
}
],
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"en:Latin letter names"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "a. 1746 (date written), Jonathan Swift, “On the Irish Club”, in Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols, editors, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, […], new edition, volume VIII, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1801, →OCLC, page 78:",
"text": "Why against printers all this noise? This summoning of blackguard boys? Why so sagacious in your guesses? Your effs, and tees, and arrs, and eſſes? Take my advice; to make you safe, I know a shorter way be half.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1969, Michael Feld, The Sabbatical Year, London: Alan Ross Ltd, page 301:",
"text": "‘Eff. You. En,’ said Mr Banstead. ‘Fun![…]’",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2019, Amy Einsohn, Marilyn Schwartz, “[Abbreviations and Symbols] Abbreviations”, in The Copyeditor’s Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications, 4th edition, University of California Press, →ISBN, part 2 (Editorial Style), page 242:",
"text": "A or an? When an indefinite article precedes an acronym or initialism, the choice between a and an follows from the pronunciation: / a FAQ file (“fack”; but “an FAQ file” with the alternate pronunciation “eff-ay-cue”) / an FTC commissioner (“eff-tee-cee”)",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2019, Anand Ranganathan, Chitra Subramaniam, The Rat Eater, Bloomsbury India, →ISBN:",
"text": "‘S-S-C…sitting on a tree…eff-you-cee-kay-i-en-ji.’",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Alternative spelling of ef; the name of the Latin-script letter F/f."
],
"links": [
[
"ef",
"ef#English"
],
[
"F",
"F#English"
],
[
"f",
"f#English"
]
],
"tags": [
"alt-of",
"alternative"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"enpr": "ĕf"
},
{
"ipa": "/ɛf/"
},
{
"rhymes": "-ɛf"
},
{
"homophone": "f"
}
],
"word": "eff"
}
Download raw JSONL data for eff meaning in English (6.6kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.