fork

noun

Any of several types of pronged (tined) tools (physical tools), as follows:

A utensil with spikes used to put solid food into the mouth, or to hold food down while cutting, or for serving food.

Any of several types of pronged tools for use on farms, in fields, or in the garden or lawn, such as a smaller hand fork for weeding or a larger one for turning over the soil.

Such a pronged tool having a long straight handle, generally for two-handed use, as used for digging, lifting, mucking, pitching, etc.

A tuning fork.

(by abstraction, from the tool shape) A fork in the road, as follows:

(physical) An intersection in a road or path where one road is split into two.

(figurative) A decision point.

(by abstraction, from the tool shape) A point where a waterway, such as a river or other stream, splits and flows into two (or more) different directions.

(metonymic, analogous to any prong of a pronged tool) One of the parts into which anything is furcated or divided; a prong; a branch of a stream, a road, etc.; a barbed point, as of an arrow.

(figuratively, decision-making) A point in time where one has to make a decision between two life paths.

(metonymic) Either of the (figurative) paths thus taken.

(figuratively, by abstraction, from a physical fork) (software development, content management, data management) A departure from having a single source of truth (SSOT), sometimes intentionally but usually unintentionally.

(metonymic) Any of the pieces/versions (of software, content, or data sets) thus created.

(software) The launch of one or more separate software development efforts based upon a modified copy of an existing project, especially in free and open-source software.

(software) Any of the software projects resulting from the launch of such separate software development efforts based upon a copy of the original project.

(content management) The splitting of the coverage of a topic (within a corpus of content) into two or more pieces.

(content management) Any of the pieces/versions of content thus created.

(cryptocurrencies) A split in a blockchain resulting from protocol disagreements, or a branch of the blockchain resulting from such a split.

(chess) The simultaneous attack of two adversary pieces with one single attacking piece (especially a knight).

(British, vulgar) The crotch.

(colloquial) A forklift.

Either of the blades of a forklift (or, in plural, the set of blades), on which the goods to be raised are loaded.

(cycling, motorcycling, by abstraction from a pronged tool's shape) In a bicycle or motorcycle, the portion of the frameset holding the front wheel, allowing the rider to steer and balance, also called front fork.

The upper front brow of a saddle bow, connected in the tree by the two saddle bars to the cantle on the other end.

(computing, file systems) A set of data associated with an individual file in some file systems.

(mining) The bottom of a sump into which the water of a mine drains.

(obsolete) A gallows.

verb

(ambitransitive) To divide into two or more branches or copies.

(ambitransitive, computing) To spawn a new child process by duplicating the existing process.

(ambitransitive, software engineering) To launch a separate software development effort based upon a modified copy of an existing software project, especially in free and open-source software.

(transitive, software engineering) To create a copy of a distributed version control repository.

(transitive) To move with a fork (as hay or food).

(transitive, British) To kick someone in the crotch.

(intransitive) To shoot into blades, as corn does.

(chess) To simultaneously attack two opposing pieces with a single attacking piece.

(mining, transitive) To bale a shaft dry.

Roots

furcafork- · Latin · fork

Synonyms for fork

furcatev pitchforkn trifurcatev spoonn branchn cutleryn crotchn ramifyv ramificationn knivesn bifurcationn flatwaren bifurcatev ladlen silverwaren

Synonyms & related words for fork

Find synonyms, related words, and the definition of fork — including furcate, pitchfork, trifurcate, spoon, branch, cutlery. Dendril is a free visual thesaurus that shows them on an interactive map where stronger matches sit closer to the center — no signup, no ads.

Words related to fork

Explore words related to fork — words associated with it, words that go with it, and its nearest matches in meaning. Related words include tines, hayfork, prongs, forkful, biforked, utensil, spatula, knife. Click any word to make it the center of the map and keep exploring the web of connections.

Synonyms for fork

Common synonyms for fork include furcate, pitchfork, trifurcate, spoon, branch, cutlery, crotch, ramify — words that share a close meaning. Hover or tap any word on the map for its definition and part of speech.

Where does fork come from?

The word fork breaks down into one root of Latin origin: the root fork-, from Latin furca (“fork”). Explore each root to see other English words built from the same source.