punk

UK/ˈpʌŋk/US/ˈpʌŋk/

nounB2Very common — you will meet it every day · #1,420 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: punks

Punk is a rough style of music and dress from the late seventies. A punk band, punk rock, dressed as a punk.

The point was that anybody could do it: three chords and no training, in deliberate reaction against the polished music of the day. In American slang a punk is a worthless young man, and that sense is older and unconnected to the music.

Definitions of punk

1nounpunkA rough style of music and dress from the late seventies.B2
“As a teenager he had a green mohican and listened to nothing but punk.”

punk is a style.

Where it comes from

Of uncertain origin, from an older American slang word meaning something worthless.

Built from

punk · English — rotten wood dust used as tinder
punk · English — prank

unknown. Possibly from punk (“rotten wood dust used as tinder”), attested since 1678, to anything worthless (attested since 1869) and then to any undesirable person (since 1908). The relatively tame 21st century usage of punk (“prank”) was popularized by the American television show Punk'd (2003).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

punk in the wild

Over time, new wave became a catch-all for several musical styles that emerged after the initial popularity of punk rock, such as synth-pop, power pop, and two-tone ska.
New wave music
During the early 1970s, the term "punk rock" was originally used by some American rock critics to describe mid-1960s garage bands.
Punk rock
The movement expanded into various subgenres during the late 1970s, giving rise to movements such as post-punk, new wave, and art punk.
Punk rock
In the second half of the 1970s, punk rock reacted by producing stripped-down, energetic social and political critiques.
Rock music
Punk was an influence in the 1980s on new wave, post-punk and eventually alternative rock.
Rock music

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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