Dictionary

folksy en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /foʊksi/ (General-American)
• /fəʊksi/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /foʊlksi/ (General-American, nonstandard)

Etymology

From folks + -y or folk + -sy.

Meanings

1. Characteristic of common folk.
   • It’s not hard to see why most people don’t feel like they fit in well with either party. But as long as the folksy and brainy contingents stay on opposite sides of the dance floor, we can look forward to a lot more of this. Bifurcation by education is always bad, but it’s worse for the educated group, because they’ll always be outnumbered. You simply cannot build a political coalition on the expectation that everybody’s going to do the reading. If the brainy group is going to survive, it has to find a way to reunite with the folksy. So maybe it’s worth taking some cues from the most successful ideologies of all time, the ones that have kept the brainy and folksy strains intertwined for thousands of years. 2025 November 25, Adam Mastroianni, “Secrets of the ancient memelords: or: pedants 'n' pinheads”, in Experimental History [Substack newsletter]:
2. Characteristic of common folk. ▸ Characteristic of simple country life.
3. (of tone in speech or writing) Characteristic of common folk. ▸ Informal, affable, and familiar.
   • Mr. Clooney, as a veteran spacewalker, with his resonant voice and folksy yarns, seems to be channeling every imperturbable astronaut you ever heard speaking from on high. 2013 September 30, Dennis Overbye, “Astronaut and a Writer at the Movies”, in The New York Times:
   • Near-synonym: chummy

Forms

Deriveds

folksiness · folksily

Relateds

just folks · folksiness · folkishness · folkish

Synonyms

chummy

Translations (13)

el λαϊκότροπος (informal: affable and familiar) · fr rustique (characteristic of simple country life) · fi lupsakka (informal: affable and familiar) · cmn 和氣 /和气 (informal: affable and familiar) · cmn 友好 (informal: affable and familiar) · fr campagnard (characteristic of simple country life) · de volkstümlich (characteristic of simple country life) · el λαϊκότροπος (characteristic of simple country life) · de locker (informal: affable and familiar) · fi kansanomainen (characteristic of simple country life) · ru простонародный (characteristic of simple country life) · de umgänglich (informal: affable and familiar) · de gesellig (informal: affable and familiar)