# Locke

/ˈɫɑk/ (US)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/locke
Updated: 2026-08-15

## Senses

### 1. philosopher

noun · CEFR C1 · Academic

John Locke was a famous English thinker who wrote about government and how people learn.

For teachers: Refers to John Locke (1632–1704), the English philosopher and physician widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers.

- In history class, we studied how Locke influenced the American Constitution.
- Locke argued that the mind is a tabula rasa at birth, a concept that fundamentally challenged the prevailing theories of innate ideas.

### 2. archaic spelling of lock

noun · CEFR C2 · Archaic

An old way of spelling 'lock' that you might see in very old books.

For teachers: An archaic orthographic variant of 'lock', referring to a fastening device or a curl of hair.

- The old poem used the spelling 'locke' to describe a piece of hair.
- Scholars examining the seventeenth-century manuscript noted the scribe's consistent use of 'locke' when referring to the mechanism of the chest.

## Examples

- She spat the locke out after eating the peach.
- The bird swallowed the whole fruit but later regurgitated the hard locke onto the garden path.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.