Words / J / General

jape

noun/dʒeɪp/

C2CEFR level
85/100Rarity: very rare
LiteraryRegister

A practical joke or piece of light-hearted mischief.

Swapping the labels on the spice jars was a harmless jape that ruined dinner entirely.

Similar: prank, trick, jest

Origin: Middle English japen, to trick or mock, of uncertain origin.

Topic: pranks in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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