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joss

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joss¹

  • /dʒɒs/ UK
  • /dʒɔs/ US
  • /dʒɑs/ cot caught merger

Rhymes with -ɒs

Where it comes from

From Chinese Pidgin English joss, from Macau Pidgin Portuguese, from Portuguese deus (“god”), from Latin deus (“god”), from Proto-Indo-European *deywós (“god/that which belongs to heaven”). Doublet of Tiw and Tyr.

noun josses · ghos

  1. countable A Chinese household divinity; a Chinese idol.
  2. countable A heathen divinity. Don't forget they're mostly just joss-worshipping heathen an' they don't get no kick out of the more classy breeds o' religion. Though I guess there ain't that much diff'rence. It ain't many's so Lord Almighty in theirselves that they don't need a joss of some sort, an' I guess it's what yu think ab
  3. informal, uncountable Luck. She had twisted a piece of heather into her mail box for good joss, and this was the safety signal.

    Similar: chance

Similar: fortune

Joss²

Rhymes with -ɒs, -ɔːs

Where it comes from

Verb usage evolved from the name of Joss Whedon, creator of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly.

proper noun Josses

  1. A diminutive of the female given name Jocelyn.
  2. A diminutive of the male given name Joseph.
  3. A surname.

verb Josses · Jossing · Jossed

  1. slang, transitive To invalidate a fan theory or original element of a fanwork through the introduction of new canon or retconning. Author's note part 2: I'm leaving it to the imagination of the reader what Cordelia saw of her future. Writing that out would be asking to be Jossed.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: goss, jos, ross, boutros, hell money, household deity, housegod, godhead, anito, jinn, door god, household god, xihe, jynx, pixiu, numen

noun

Similar: fortune

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Cite this
MLA

"joss." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/joss. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

joss. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/joss

Chicago

"joss." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/joss.

BibTeX
@misc{joss_2026,
  title = {joss},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/joss},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}