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wonky

UK/ˈwɒŋ.kɪ/US/ˈwɑŋ.ki/
adjectiveB2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechleans spokeninformal · an editor’s judgement

Wonky means not straight, or not working properly, in a slightly comic way. A table that rocks, a wheel that wobbles.

It is thoroughly British and thoroughly informal, and it is affectionate rather than critical, which is why a shelf described as a bit wonky is being forgiven. It covers appearance and function equally, so a wonky picture is crooked and a wonky knee is unreliable. Supermarkets now sell wonky vegetables, which are misshapen and perfectly good, and the word did the marketing on its own.

Definitions of wonky

  1. 1adjectivewonkyCrooked, unsteady or not working properly.B2

    “The whole shelf is a bit wonky.”

Where it comes from

  1. Proto-West Germanic

    *wankul — swaying, shaky, unstable

  2. Old English

    wancol — unstable

  3. Middle English

    wankel — unstable, shaky

  4. English, today

    wonky

From English dialectal wanky, alteration of Middle English wankel (“unstable, shaky”), from Old English wancol (“unstable”), from Proto-West Germanic wankul (“swaying, shaky, unstable”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 2 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word