Funky

How to spell funky

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce funky

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does funky mean?

1. adjectiveFashionably bold, quirky, or unconventional in style.
2. adjectiveCharacterised by the strong, danceable rhythm of funk or soul music.
3. adjectiveHaving a strong, musty, or unpleasant smell.

Funky in a sentence

• She decorated the flat with funky second-hand furniture.

• The band played a funky bassline that filled the dance floor.

• The gym bag smelled funky after a week of neglect.

• The cafe had a funky vibe with mismatched chairs and bright murals.

• The track opens with a funky guitar riff.

• The fridge turned funky once the milk went off.

Where does funky come from?

Language of origin: French

The base word funk reaches English through a tangle of senses. The oldest, recorded from the mid 1600s, meant a strong, musty, unpleasant smell, and it is generally traced to a dialectal French verb funkier, meaning 'to give off smoke or fumes', which in turn goes back to the Latin fumus, meaning 'smoke'. The adjective funky originally just described something that reeked or smelled stale. In twentieth century African American English the word took a striking turn: a 'funky' performance came to mean one that was earthy, soulful and unpolished in the best way, and from there funk became the name of a whole groove based music style. The modern senses of 'stylish and unconventional' and 'slightly off or out of sorts' both grew out of that same idea of something pleasingly or unpleasantly distinctive. For spelling, the trap is small but real: the sound is spelled with a plain -nk-, not -nc-, and the word ends in -ky.

How the word is built

• funk (strong smell; later a musical groove)
• -y (adjective suffix)