campy

adjective

ˈkam-pē 

campier; campiest

: in the style of camp : absurdly exaggerated, artificial, or affected in a usually humorous way

campy horror movies

campy humor

Witnessing their synchronized routine, he almost expects them to break into some campy chorus line from one of the seedier nightclubs.

—Margaret Atwood

He could modify his outbursts into what were sometimes hilariously campy performances.

—Robert Gray

campily

ˈkam-pə-lē 

adverb

The new film promises to be as campily outrageous as its predecessors.

—John Stark

… the Addams Family, the campily macabre clan created by the late cartoonist Charles Addams …

—Margot Dougherty

campiness

ˈkam-pē-nəs 

noun

… hoped to take Rocketeer to a much higher level of sophistication and avoid the campiness of some of the more recent comics-inspired films.

—Ron Magid

… a power-mad despot, played with exhilarating campiness by John Malkovich.

—Steven Rebello

Examples of campy in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Parker Finn's directorial debut not only lives up to the hype but also delivers a campy and absurd exploration of the transference of generational trauma — pulling off some impressive jump scares and one hell of a phantasmagorical ending. —Steven Thrash, Entertainment Weekly, 19 Oct. 2025

The end result was fun, campy and lighthearted enough to feel in on the joke. —Julie Hinds, Freep.com, 17 Oct. 2025

Drag performance, with its abundance of wigs, campy makeup and death drops, is ready-made for Halloween. —John Metcalfe, Mercury News, 16 Oct. 2025

To the rest of the world, this person is this campy eccentric thing. —H. Alan Scott, MSNBC Newsweek, 8 Oct. 2025

Word History

Etymology

camp entry 3 + -y entry 1

First Known Use

1932, in the meaning defined above