OK

All right, acceptable, permitted.

Adjective

  1. All right, acceptable, permitted.
    • Is it OK if I spend the night?
    • 'Everything O.K. so far as I have found,' was the reassuring answer. - 1927, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados Mysteries:
    • “A Summer Places”s simple thesis is that sexual promiscuity among the young is OK in general but it’s even more OK if the adults have a record of adultery and it’s even OKer than that if everybody has lots of money. But...
  2. Satisfactory, reasonably good; not exceptional.
    • The soup was OK, but the dessert was excellent.
    • I watched her pale complexion and her creaseless school uniform as she shyly introduced herself in front of the class, and decided she was no different from all the others in Saginomiya Girls’ High School: rather smart,...
  3. Satisfied (with); willing to accept a state of affairs.
    • If you leave the kids in the creche for one morning on your week's holiday, and they are OK with that, then it's fine. - 2012, Roni Jay, The 10 Most Important Things You Can Do For Your Children:
  4. In good health or a good emotional state.
    • He's not feeling well now, but he should be OK after some rest.
    • Are you OK?
    • ‘Are we OK? Is this—?’ She made a gesture to include their two bodies. / ‘This is the OKest I’ve been in years.’ - 2014, Sue Moorcroft, chapter 18, in The Wedding Proosal, Camberley, Surrey: Choc Lit, →ISBN, page 200:

Origin

Origin disputed. Wikipedia lists many possible etymologies, of which the most widely accepted is that it is an abbreviation of oll/orl korrect, a comical spelling of all correct, which first appeared in print in The Boston Morning Post on March 23, 1839, as part of a fad for similar fanciful abbreviations in the United States during the late 1830s. The expression became popular through its use in the presidential campaign of Martin Van Buren in 1840, who was nicknamed Old Kinderhook, and then slowly acquired other meanings. The Choctaw word oke, okeh (“it is so”), common in Choctaw translations of the Bible, could also explain OK's variety of affirmative definitions. Additionally, okeh was the most common etymology of okay in dictionaries until the 1960s, and linguistically predates Boston's O.K.. However, this theory suffers from the fact that the Choctaw language was relatively...

Forms

more OK OKer most OK OKest O.K. o.k. ok okay O. K. o. k. okeh okey okie

Synonyms

allowed all right permissible adequate not bad satisfactory fine well

Antonyms

forbidden NG bad inadequate poor unsatisfactory ill poorly sick under the weather unwell

Adverb

  1. Satisfactorily, sufficiently well.
    • The team did OK in the playoffs.

Forms

more OK most OK O.K. o.k. ok okay O. K. o. k. okeh okey okie

Synonyms

adequately satisfactorily

Antonyms

NG badly inadequately poorly unsatisfactorily

Interjection

  1. Used to indicate acknowledgement or acceptance.
    • I promise to give it back. – OK.
    • Let's meet again this afternoon. – OK.
    • Shut up! – OK, OK.

    Synonyms: okey-dokey okeh okey k 'kay m'kay A-OK all right

  2. Used to dismiss a dialog box or confirm a prompt.
  3. Used to introduce a sentence in order to draw attention to the importance of what is being said.
    • OK, I'm thinking of a number…

    Synonyms: now now then

  4. Used in turn-taking, serving as a request to the speaker to grant the turn to the interrupter.
    • You always do this to me! When we were at your mother’s, you said that… – OK, OK, …
  5. Used to sarcastically or sardonically indicate agreement with the previous statement.

Forms

O.K. o.k. ok okay O. K. o. k. okeh okey okie

Related

oll korrect 👌

Derived

A-OK A-okay Horn OK Please k 'kay kthxbye m'kay okay OK, boomer OK'er okey-dokey OKish OK please OK, zoomer you OK

Proper noun

  1. Abbreviation of Oklahoma: a state of the United States.

Forms

OK. Ok. Ok

Synonyms

Oklahoma Okla Okla.

Noun Entry 5

  1. Endorsement; approval; acceptance; acquiescence.
    • We can start as soon as we get the OK.

Forms

OKs OK's O.K. o.k. ok okay O. K. o. k. okeh okey okie

Synonyms

approval endorsement green light go-ahead nod thumbs up

Antonyms

NG

Noun Hong Kong, no plural

  1. Karaoke.

Origin

Possibly a shortening of Chinese 卡拉OK.

Verb

  1. To approve; to accept; to acquiesce to.
    • I don't want to OK this amount of money.
    • In the data case, Judge John Bates has OK’d four depositions, while green-lighting other discovery requests from the challengers. - 2025 March 30, Tierney Sneed, “Is DOGE actually an agency? The answer could have major...
  2. To confirm by activating a button marked OK.
    • Type a suitable name for your Marker and OK the dialogue box. - 2001, Mike Collins, Pro Tools: Practical Recording, Editing and Mixing for Music Production:
    • When you OK the crop, the image size will be adjusted to match the front image resolution. - 2008, Martin Evening, Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers:

Forms

OKs OK's OKing OK'ing OKed OK'd OK'ed O.K. o.k. ok okay O. K. o. k. okeh okey okie

Synonyms

approve greenlight