kike

• kyke

Originally used by German-American Jews as a slur for Eastern European Jews immigrating to the United States.^[1]

The most dominant theory is from Yiddish קײַקל (kaykl, “circle”). In the early 20th century, non-English-speaking Jews that immigrated to the United States would sign papers with a circle as opposed to a more common X, in order to avoid using a symbol reminiscent of a Christian Cross.^[2] If so, a doublet of chakra, chakram, charkha, chukker, cycle, cyclus, and wheel.

Other theories also exist, in particular a contraction from the documented phrase “Ikey-Kikey”, an American-origin reduplication of ikey, which in turn is a British-English pejorative for Jews after the prevalence of the name Isaac.^[3]

Alternatively, from Scots keek (“to peek or peep surreptitiously”), used in the New York City clothing industry to refer to the practice of sending spies to work in competing garment factories to copy designs which would then be reproduced and sold at lower cost. Eastern European Jews played a major role in the clothing industry and were perceived to frequently participate in underhanded business tactics. Originally mostly used by older, established German Jews to refer to the Eastern European newcomers, eventually it became generalized to all Jews.^[4]

• IPA^(key): /kaɪk/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪk

kike (plural kikes)

1. (US, offensive, ethnic slur, religious slur) A Jew.

   Synonyms: heeb (not always pejorative), Hymie, sheeny, shylock, yid

   • 1922, Sinclair Lewis, “24”, in Babbitt:

     "Now you quit kidding me! What's the nice little name?" "Oh, it ain't so darn nice. I guess it's kind of kike. But my folks ain't kikes. My papa's papa was a nobleman in Poland, and there was a gentleman in here one day, he was kind of a count or something--"

   • 2016 June 8, Tom Kludt, “New York Times editor quits Twitter over anti-Semitic tweets”, in CNN Business‎^[4]:

     In one tweet, Weisman was referred to as a "kike." Another threatened to have him put "in the oven."

   • 2019 February 2, “SPLC Kike Mark Potok Tracks America’s Declining White Population”, in Infostormer‎^[5], archived from the original on 12 June 2025:

     Potok in case you don’t know, is a devious kike who works for the Southern Poverty Law Center which is a notorious anti-White hate group.

2. (US, offensive) A miser; a contemptible, stingy person, particularly a well-endowed one.

   Synonym: see Thesaurus:miser

   That greedy kike would not give me any money when I was starving and needed food.

3. (Judaism, obsolete, US, offensive, ethnic slur) An Eastern European Jew.
   • 1912, Report of the National Conference of Jewish Charities in the United States, Cleveland:

     The German Jews are bitterly opposed to the "Kikes," as they persist in calling the Russian Jews.

• → Japanese: カイク (kaiku)

kike (third-person singular simple present kikes, present participle kiking, simple past and past participle kiked)

1. (transitive, offensive, uncommon) To render something more Jewish.
2. (transitive, offensive, uncommon) To haggle or swindle in order to obtain a better deal from.

kike (comparative more kike, superlative most kike)

1. (slang, derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur, somewhat dated) Jewish.
   • 1956, David Karp, All Honorable Men, page 74:

     If you repeat that lie, I'll wring that skinny kike neck of yours with my own hands!

2. (slang, derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur, somewhat dated) Of goods or manufacturing, poor-quality.
   • 1904, Roy Larcom McCardell, The Show Girl and Her Friends, page 170:

     She had on a kike hat from a Division Street department store, of one department - the dollar down and a dollar a week department - and a shirtwaist with green and yellow stripes that would drive you dippy.

• kike on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• ekki

kike

1. Rōmaji transcription of きけ

From Norwegian Nynorsk kike, from Middle Low German kîken.

• IPA^(key): /çiːke/, [çiːkə]

kike (imperative kik, present tense kiker, past tense kiket or kika or (nonstandard) keik or kek, past participle kiket or kika, present participle kikende)

1. alternative form of kikke (“to look”)

• “kike” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

• kika
• kikke
• kikka

From Middle Low German kiken.

• IPA^(key): /²çiːkə/

kike (present tense kik or kikar, past tense keik or kika, supine kike, past participle kiken or kika, present participle kikande, imperative kik)

1. to look
2. to glance
3. to peek,
4. to peer
5. to gaze

• kikkert
• utkikstønne

“kike” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• Audio (Kenya):

  (file)

-a kike (invariable)

1. feminine, female

   Antonym: -a kiume