fork

Fetched 2026-10-28 (live).

Datamuse reports no synonyms or antonyms for this word.

Noun

1. 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.
2. A utensil with spikes used to put solid food into the mouth, or to hold food down while cutting, or for serving food.
3. 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.
4. Such a pronged tool having a long straight handle, generally for two-handed use, as used for digging, lifting, mucking, pitching, etc.
5. A tuning fork.
6. A fork in the road, as follows: An intersection in a road or path where one road is split into two. A decision point.
7. An intersection in a road or path where one road is split into two.
8. A decision point.
9. A point where a waterway, such as a river or other stream, splits and flows into two (or more) different directions.
10. 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.
    • a thunderbolt with three forks
    • this fork of the river dries up during droughts
11. A point in time where one has to make a decision between two life paths. Either of the (figurative) paths thus taken.
12. Either of the (figurative) paths thus taken.
13. A departure from having a single source of truth (SSOT), sometimes intentionally but usually unintentionally. Any of the pieces/versions (of software, content, or data sets) thus created.
    • LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice.
    • A content fork may be intentional (as from a schism about goals) or unintentional (merely from a lack of reorganizing, so far).
14. Any of the pieces/versions (of software, content, or data sets) thus created.
15. 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. Any of the software projects resulting from the launch of such separate software development efforts based upon a copy of the original project.
    • LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice.
16. Any of the software projects resulting from the launch of such separate software development efforts based upon a copy of the original project.
    • LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice.
17. The splitting of the coverage of a topic (within a corpus of content) into two or more pieces.
    • A content fork may be intentional (as from a schism about goals) or unintentional (merely from a lack of reorganizing, so far).
18. Any of the pieces/versions of content thus created.
19. A split in a blockchain resulting from protocol disagreements, or a branch of the blockchain resulting from such a split.
20. The simultaneous attack of two adversary pieces with one single attacking piece (especially a knight).
21. The crotch. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
22. A forklift.
    • Are you qualified to drive a fork?
23. Either of the blades of a forklift (or, in plural, the set of blades), on which the goods to be raised are loaded.
    • Get those forks tilted back more or you're gonna lose that pallet!
24. 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 fork can be equipped with a suspension on mountain bikes.
25. The upper front brow of a saddle bow, connected in the tree by the two saddle bars to the cantle on the other end.
26. A set of data associated with an individual file in some file systems.
    • resource fork
27. A gallows.

Verb

1. To divide into two or more branches or copies.
   • A road, a tree, or a stream forks.
2. To spawn a new child process by duplicating the existing process.
3. To launch a separate software development effort based upon a modified copy of an existing software project, especially in free and open-source software.
4. To create a copy of a distributed version control repository.
5. To move with a fork (as hay or food).
6. To apply a fork to.
   • forking the soil
7. To kick someone in the crotch.
8. To shoot into blades, as corn does.
9. To simultaneously attack two opposing pieces with a single attacking piece.
10. Euphemistic form of fuck.
    • They were forking each other in the back room.

Noun

1. The bottom of a sump into which the water of a mine drains.

Verb

1. To bale a shaft dry.

Source: Wiktionary · CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wiktionary) · cached copy, not a rewrite.