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

In a remarkable act of creation spurred on by the space race between America and the Soviet Union, science fiction television shows in the 1960s confidently came of age, emerging from campy low-budget offerings of space commandos amid cardboard sets and sparking rockets to more sophisticated fare. —Jeff Spry, Space.com, 11 Mar. 2025

Related Stories Movies 'Ghost Boy' Review: A Haunting Look at One Man's Long, Devastating Struggle to Come Out of His Shell Movies Blake Lively Debuts New 'Simple Favor' Movie to a Warm Welcome at SXSW Amid Legal Battle Another Simple Favor The Bottom Line Overly reliant on campy antics. —Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 7 Mar. 2025

Below, Rees-Jones and his fellow executive producer Mike Cotton answer all our burning questions — from whether the cast signs NDAs and whether Britney knew about Danielle to how those campy before-bed montages come about. —Emily Longeretta, Variety, 27 Feb. 2025

Who could ever have guessed that Charli XCX’s messiest, most vulnerable album yet would see her ride to the greatest success of her career, 15 years in, or that Chappell Roan’s unabashedly campy approach to pop could take her all the way to the top of the charts? —Liam Hess, Vogue, 3 Feb. 2025

Word History

Etymology

camp entry 3 + -y entry 1

First Known Use

1932, in the meaning defined above