Junk Meaning
/d͡ʒʌŋk/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounMiscellaneous items of little value, especially discarded or unwanted items.
nounMaterial or resources of poor quality or low value, especially resources that lack commercial value.
Sentence Examples
It's junk. Throw it away.
This car is no better than junk.
Starting today, only healthy food. No more junk food for me!
CEFR Practice Quiz
After cleaning the garage, we threw away all the old ____ we found.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She decided to clear out all the ____ from the attic and give it away to a local charity shop today.
Word Origin & History
From earlier meaning "old refuse from boats and ships", from Middle English junk, jounke, jonk, joynk (“an old cable or rope”, nautical term), sometimes cut into bits and used as caulking; of uncertain origin; perhaps related to join, joint, juncture. Often compared to Middle English junk, jonk, jonke, junck (“a rush; basket made of rushes”), from Old French jonc, from Latin iuncus (“rush, reed”); however, the Oxford English Dictionary finds "no evidence of connexion".
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"What a piece of junk!"
— 1977, George Lucas, Star Wars: A New Hope, spoken by Luke Skywalker:
"In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result."
— 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, page 74:
"The poor fellow took so much junk into his system he could only weather the greater proportion of his day in that chair with the lamp burning at noon, but in the morning he was magnificent."
— 1957, Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC:
"Trace a line of goose pimples up the thin young arm. Slide the needle in and push the bulb watching the junk hit him all over. Move right in with the shit and suck junk through all the hungry young cells."
— 1966 [1961], William S. Burroughs, The Soft Machine (The Nova Trilogy), New York: Grove Press, page 7:
"Ah love nothing (except junk), ah hate nothing (except forces that prevent me getting any) and ah fear nothing (except not scoring)."
— 1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 21:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
After cleaning the garage, we threw away all the old ____ we found.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She decided to clear out all the ____ from the attic and give it away to a local charity shop today.