folks
- 1People in general, said in a friendly, informal way, often when speaking to a group of listeners.
Folks tend to slow down whenever they spot a patrol car.
A lot of folks believe the rumor without ever checking the facts.
UsageOften after most, some or a lot of: most folks. It sounds friendlier and plainer than people, which suits formal writing better.
Similarpeople
Note
An American way of naming ordinary people at large, plainer and friendlier than "people." It suits talk about ordinary citizens, so it turns up naturally in political talk, as in a scene about campaigning in Dennis Lehane's 2006 script for The Wire.
- 2
- 3Plural of folk.
Note
Here the word is the ordinary count plural of folk in its older sense of "a people, a nation": several folks are several distinct peoples. That use of folk is archaic, so this plural sounds old-fashioned or literary. In its everyday collective sense, folk needs no -s at all (country folk). That is why the "people in general" plural feels like a separate word.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Folks is the count plural of folk meaning a people or nation. en.wiktionary.org
- The countable sense of folk meaning a people or nation is archaic. en.wiktionary.org
Less common meanings
- 4Migrants who came to California from Iowa and other parts of the Midwestern United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
McPherson's healing ministry, in fact. was at the core of her success, since so many of the Folks had come to Southern California in late middle or old age in the hope of regaining lost health.
2007, Kevin Starr, California: A History - 5The police, considered as a body of law-enforcement officers.
folks is a form of folk
folk, noun: People in general; men, women, and children considered collectively. Full entry
- Forms
- folkfolks plural
- Spelling
- folk → folks: add -s
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /s/.
Practice
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