What does bogey mean?
Bogey is a versatile word whose most familiar modern meaning comes from golf: a score of one stroke over par on a given hole. A golfer who takes five strokes on a par-four has made a bogey, while two strokes over par is a double bogey. The word's older and more colourful sense, however, is far spookier — a bogey was originally a frightening spirit or phantom, the same creature behind the nursery-room 'bogeyman', a sense it shares with relatives such as bogle and bugbear. During the Second World War, British and American pilots borrowed the word as slang for an unidentified aircraft on radar, especially one assumed to be hostile, giving us phrases like 'scramble to intercept the bogey'. Informally, particularly in British usage, it also names a piece of dried nasal mucus — a childish, slightly crude association. Few everyday words span golf greens, ghost stories, and fighter jets so neatly.
A golf score of one stroke over par for a hole or round.
"After finding the bunker, he settled for a bogey on the twelfth."
An imaginary frightening creature or spectre; a bogeyman.
"Children were warned that a bogey lived in the cellar."
Military slang for an unidentified aircraft, especially one suspected to be hostile.
"Controllers vectored two interceptors toward the incoming bogey."
To complete a hole or round of golf in one stroke over par.
"She bogeyed the final hole but still won by a stroke."
Standard plural for all noun senses; do not confuse with 'bogies', a variant spelling sometimes used for the railway-truck sense.
"Three consecutive bogeys dropped him out of contention."
The word you use when your golf score slips is the same word your grandparents used to scare you with — 'bogey' literally means a monster.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bogey
'Bogey' derives from Middle English 'bugge', a word for a terrifying spectre or hobgoblin, which itself may relate to Old Norse and other Germanic terms for goblins and supernatural beings. From this root came a family of fright-words including 'bogle', 'bugbear', 'bugaboo', and 'boggle'. The golf sense emerged in Britain in the late nineteenth century, reportedly at Great Yarmouth, where 'bogey' — the imaginary club-standard opponent — came to mean one stroke over par. Military aviators adopted the term during the Second World War for unknown radar contacts, extending the idea of a lurking unseen threat into the skies.
Related word forms
How bogey is actually used
In everyday speech 'bogey' is informal. In golf contexts it is standard and neutral terminology. The monster sense survives mostly in the compound 'bogeyman'. The military sense is dated to mid-20th-century usage but still appears in aviation writing. In American informal English, 'bogey' can also denote dried nasal mucus, where British English more commonly uses 'bogey' as well; this sense should be treated as crude or childish register.
Easily confused with bogey
A bogie (also spelled bogey) is the wheeled undercarriage truck beneath a railway vehicle, whereas 'bogey' in its main senses refers to a golf score, a monster, or an unidentified aircraft.
The bogeyman is the specific imaginary creature used to frighten children, while 'bogey' alone can refer to that figure but also to a golf score or an unidentified aircraft.