folklore

• folk-lore

From folk +‎ lore, coined by British writer William Thoms in 1846 to replace terms such as "popular antiquities". Thoms imitated German terms such as Volklehre (“people's customs”) and Volksüberlieferung (“popular tradition”). Compare also Old English folclar (“popular instruction; homily”) and West Frisian folkloare (“folklore”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfəʊk.lɔː/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈfoʊk.lɔːɹ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

folklore (countable and uncountable, plural folklores)

1. The tales, legends, superstitions, and traditions of a particular ethnic population.
   • 1903 April 18, W[illiam] E[dward] Burghardt Du Bois, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings”, in The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., →OCLC, pages 11–12:

     [T]here is no true American music but the wild sweet melodies of the Negro slave; the American fairy tales and folk-lore are Indian and African; and, all in all, we black men seem the sole oasis of simple faith and reverence in a dusty desert of dollars and smartness.

   • 1908–1910 (date written; published 1910 October 18), E[dward] M[organ] Forster, chapter 33, in Howards End, London: Edward Arnold, →OCLC:

     Why has not England a great mythology? Our folklore has never advanced beyond daintiness, and the greater melodies about our country-side have all issued through the pipes of Greece.

   • 1913, Booth Tarkington, The Flirt, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC:

     “Lisieux is a little town in Normandy,” she said. “I was there a few days with your father, one summer, long ago. It’s a country full of old stories, folklore, and traditions; and the people still believe in the Old Scratch pretty literally. […] ”

   • 1921, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 5, in Tarzan the Terrible‎^[1], A. C. McClurg:

     Crossing the ridge she stood at last upon the brink of Kor-ul-GRYF—the horror place of the folklore of her race.

2. (by extension) The tales, superstitions etc. of any particular group or community.
   • 1996, Eric S. Raymond, The New Hacker's Dictionary, 3rd edition, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 3:

     A selection of longer items of hacker folklore and humor is included in Appendix A, Hacker Folklore.

   • 2021 May, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 0 – 1 Leicester”, in BBC Sport‎^[2]:

     Foxes boss Rodgers had a smile that illuminated Wembley as he joined Leicester's players in joyous scenes of celebration after the manager and his players had written their name into the club's folklore.

3. (mathematics, slang) The collective of proofs or techniques which are widely known among mathematicians, but have never been formally published.

• folk
• lore
• myth
• oral tradition
• intangible cultural heritage

Borrowed from English folklore.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [fulˈklɔ.ɾə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [folˈklɔ.ɾə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [folˈklo.ɾe]

folklore m (uncountable)

1. folklore

• folklòric

• “folklore”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “folklore”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “folklore” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “folklore”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

From English folklore, from folk + lore.

• IPA^(key): /fɔlkloːrə/, [fʌlɡ̊ˈloːɐ], [fʌlˈkʰloːɐ]

folklore c (singular definite folkloren, not used in plural form)

1. folklore

• “folklore” in Den Danske Ordbog
• folklore on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da

Borrowed from English folklore.

• IPA^(key): /fɔlˈkloːrə/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: fol‧klo‧re

folklore c (uncountable, no diminutive)

1. folklore

Borrowed from English folklore.

• IPA^(key): /fɔl.klɔʁ/

folklore m (plural folklores)

1. folklore

• → Romanian: folclor n
• → Turkish: folklor

• “folklore”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

folklore (plural folklore-folklore)

1. alternative spelling of folklor (“folklore”)

From English folklore.

folklore m (definite singular folkloren, indefinite plural folklorer, definite plural folklorene)

1. folklore

• “folklore” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From English folklore.

folklore m (definite singular folkloren, indefinite plural folklorar, definite plural folklorane)

1. folklore

• “folklore” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• IPA^(key): /folˈkloɾe/ [folˈklo.ɾe]
  • Rhymes: -oɾe
• IPA^(key): /folˈkloɾ/ [folˈkloɾ]
  • Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: fol‧klo‧re

folklore m (plural folklores)

1. alternative spelling of folclore

• “folklore”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Unadapted borrowing from English folklore. Attested since 1872.

folklore c

1. folklore

• folktro

• “folklore”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “folklore”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)