What does blankety mean?
Blankety is an informal adjective functioning as a minced oath: a deliberately softened stand-in for a coarser swear word, most often 'bloody' in British usage. Speakers deploy it to vent irritation — about a jammed printer, a lost key, a stubborn engine — while staying within polite company, which gives it a mildly comic, faintly retro tone reminiscent of mid-twentieth-century British comedy. It also appears in the reduplicated form 'blankety-blank', where it intensifies 'blank' to mean completely empty, or evokes the censor's black bar over forbidden words. Grammatically it behaves like any attributive adjective ('the blankety thing wouldn't start'), though its register is strictly conversational; it belongs to the same family of euphemistic intensifiers as 'blasted', 'darned', and 'flipping'. Its charm lies in its very harmlessness: it signals frustration vividly while offending no one, making it a useful tool for writers of dialogue and anyone who wants emphasis without expletives.
Used as a mild substitute for a stronger expletive such as 'bloody', expressing irritation or emphasis.
"Somebody had parked right across the blankety driveway again."
Chiefly British and informal; carries a comic, slightly dated tone.
Intensifying 'blank' to mean utterly empty or censored, especially in the fixed phrase 'blankety-blank'.
"Every page he submitted came back covered in blankety-black bars where the classified material had been."
It's the swear word you can say in front of your grandmother — a verbal fig leaf that lets you vent without actually swearing at all.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of blankety
Blankety derives from 'blank', a word borrowed into English from French 'blanc' (white, pale) in the fifteenth century. The suffix '-ety' is an informal, expressive ending used to build playful intensifiers, much as in 'snazzy'-style coinages. The word arose as a euphemistic dodge: by echoing 'blank' — the word for an empty space or a censored gap — it let speakers hint at a swear word without uttering it, a practice known as minced oathing that flourished especially in British speech of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Related word forms
How blankety is actually used
Informal and chiefly conversational; commonest in British English, where it carries a slightly old-fashioned, comic flavour. Because it is a minced oath rather than genuine profanity, it is safe in family settings and light comedy, but sounds dated or affected in formal writing.
Easily confused with blankety
A blanket is a noun denoting a warm bed covering, whereas blankety is a mild expletive or intensifier with no relation to bedding.