folk

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The common people of a society or region considered as the representatives of a traditional way of life and especially as the originators or carriers of the customs, beliefs, and arts that make up a distinctive culture: a leader who came from the folk.
2. n. Archaic A nation; a people.
3. n. Informal People in general. Often used in the plural: Folks around here are very friendly.
4. n. People of a specified group or kind. Often used in the plural: city folks; rich folk.
5. n. Informal The members of one's family or childhood household; one's relatives.
6. n. Informal One's parents: My folks are coming for a visit.
7. adj. Of, occurring in, or originating among the common people: folk culture; a folk hero.
8. idiom. just folks Informal Down-to-earth, open-hearted.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. People, considered either distributively or collectively. Specifically— People in general; persons regarded individually: used in a plural sense either as folk or folks.
2. n. plural Persons mentally classed together as forming a special group: with a qualifying adjective or clause: in this use chiefly colloquial and generally in the form folks; as, old folks; young folks; poor folks.
3. n. The people as an aggregate; the common people: in this use without a plural form.
4. n. An aggregate or corporate body of persons; a people; a nation: as singular folk, as plural folks (but rare in the plural).
5. n. plural friends: as, we are not folks now.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Of or pertaining to the inhabitants of a land, their culture, tradition, or history.
2. adj. Of or pertaining to common people as opposed to ruling classes or elites.
3. n. A grouping of smaller peoples or tribes as a nation.
4. n. The inhabitants of a region especially the native inhabitants.
5. n. One’s relatives especially one’s parents.
6. n. Folk music.
7. n. People in general.
8. n. A particular group of people.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe.
2. n. People in general, or a separate class of people; -- generally used in the plural form, and often with a qualifying adjective
3. n. The persons of one's own family.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. people descended from a common ancestor
2. n. the traditional and typically anonymous music that is an expression of the life of people in a community
3. n. a social division of (usually preliterate) people
4. n. people in general (often used in the plural)