Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • abbreviation Oklahoma
  • adjective Satisfactory or agreeable; acceptable.
  • adjective Correct.
  • adjective Barely satisfactory; mediocre.
  • adjective In proper or satisfactory operational or working order.
  • adjective Uninjured or not seriously injured.
  • adjective Fairly healthy.
  • noun Approval; agreement.
  • adverb Fine; well enough; adequately.
  • interjection Used to express approval or agreement.
  • transitive verb To approve of or agree to; authorize.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A Middle English variant of oak.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun Acronym of Oklahoma, a state of the United States of America.
  • noun endorsement; approval
  • verb To approve.
  • verb computing To confirm by activating a button marked OK.
  • adjective all right, permitted
  • adjective satisfactory, reasonably good; not exceptional
  • adjective in good health or a good emotional state
  • adverb satisfactorily, sufficiently well
  • interjection Used to indicate acknowledgement or acceptance.
  • interjection An utterance expressing exasperation, similar to "all right!"
  • interjection Used to introduce a sentence in order to draw attention to the importance of what is being said.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a state in south central United States
  • adverb an expression of agreement normally occurring at the beginning of a sentence
  • adjective being satisfactory or in satisfactory condition
  • noun an endorsement
  • verb give sanction to
  • noun an endorsement
  • adverb in a satisfactory or adequate manner
  • adjective being satisfactory or in satisfactory condition

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Abbreviation of oll korrect, slang respelling of all correct.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

An abbreviated comical spelling of "all correct" (oll korrect), first appearing in print in The Boston Morning Post 1839 March 23; part of a fad for similar fanciful abbreviations in the United States during the late 1830s. See Metcalf (2011).

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Examples

Comments

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  • OK or Okay: (informal). Interjection indicating agreement to approval of what

    Somebody said or done, also indicating that something is finished, and

    No further action is to be taken.

    Origin: O. for Optimum (Latin) the best or the most favorable. And,

    K. (Chem.). A Symbol for equilibrium constant; the state reached

    In a reversible reaction velocities in the two opposing directions

    Are equal, so that the system has no further tendency to change.

    (Chambers Science and Technology Dictionary).

    The O. and the K. were used after double checking a formula, or a product, in order to indicate that it has passed. After the first test the O. For Optimum, was used to indicate that the formula passed. Then the K. was shown indicating ( for no further action is needed) Therefore when the symbol (OK) appeared in front of a formula it indicated that it has been double checked, and it is passed.

    November 14, 2009

  • I'm afraid this might not be the actual etymology, capco. In the "etymologies" section of this page you can find a more documented one. See also here for a list of suggested etymologies, with references.

    November 14, 2009

  • To be like What? Or thats weird.

    August 2, 2012

  • Vox did an article on this word.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UnIDL-eHOs

    How it started from Boston and spread through the Telegraphs.

    September 17, 2018