hunkier; hunkiest
: being a hunk : attractive and usually well-built
the film's hunky leading man
variants
or less commonly Hunkie
plural Hunkies
dated, usually disparaging + offensive
: a person of central or east European birth or descent
Examples of hunky in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Robert Lloyd, Boston Herald, 10 May 2026
Casting sexy, hunky Sharpe as Mozart — quite in contrast to the movie’s Tom Hulce, with his Harpo Marx energy and strange explosive giggle — signals that this is meant to be a Serious Take on the material.
—Television Critic, Los Angeles Times, 8 May 2026
Writers’ assistant Marco (Oh, Mary’s Tony Macht) is able to get the new scene produced with terrifying speed, and soon enough Valerie is performing it alongside her co-star Dean (Zane Phillips), who’s playing the hunky nephew.
—Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 6 Apr. 2026
Whale lusts after a hunky gardener (Brendan Fraser) and persuades him to pose for a few sketches; Julian, though bisexual, expresses no such interest in Lori, and any art-making turns out to be a gratifyingly mutual endeavor.
—Justin Chang, New Yorker, 3 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for hunky
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Adjective
Casting sexy, hunky Sharpe as Mozart — quite in contrast to the movie’s Tom Hulce, with his Harpo Marx energy and strange explosive giggle — signals that this is meant to be a Serious Take on the material.
—Robert Lloyd, Boston Herald, 10 May 2026
Casting sexy, hunky Sharpe as Mozart — quite in contrast to the movie’s Tom Hulce, with his Harpo Marx energy and strange explosive giggle — signals that this is meant to be a Serious Take on the material.
—Television Critic, Los Angeles Times, 8 May 2026
Writers’ assistant Marco (Oh, Mary’s Tony Macht) is able to get the new scene produced with terrifying speed, and soon enough Valerie is performing it alongside her co-star Dean (Zane Phillips), who’s playing the hunky nephew.
—Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 6 Apr. 2026
Whale lusts after a hunky gardener (Brendan Fraser) and persuades him to pose for a few sketches; Julian, though bisexual, expresses no such interest in Lori, and any art-making turns out to be a gratifyingly mutual endeavor.
—Justin Chang, New Yorker, 3 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for hunky
Cite this Entry
“Hunky.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hunky. Accessed 15 May. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
