Poker
nounA card game in which players bet on the value of their hands, often relying on bluffing.
How to spell poker
5 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce poker
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does poker mean?
- nounA card game in which players bet on the value of their hands, often relying on bluffing.
- nounA metal rod used to stir or rearrange burning coals or logs in a fire.
Poker in a sentence
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They played poker for low stakes after dinner.
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She used a cast-iron poker to shift the glowing logs.
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He kept a straight face to disguise his weak hand at poker.
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The poker hung beside the tongs on the hearth.
Where does poker come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
The fireside sense comes straight from the English verb 'poke', meaning to prod or jab, plus the instrument suffix '-er', so a poker is literally the thing you poke a fire with; the verb itself reached Middle English from Middle Dutch and Middle Low German 'poken', meaning to thrust or strike. The card-game sense is a separate and genuinely murky story that surfaced in the United States in the early 1800s. It is most often traced to the French game 'poque' and a related German bluffing game 'Pochspiel' or 'pochen', meaning 'to brag or knock', which suits a game built on bluffing. Because the two senses look identical but come from different roots, the spelling is stable while the history is not, and the card meaning is best labelled uncertain.
How the word is built
- poke (to prod or jab)
- -er (agent/instrument suffix)
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