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

The campy sense of mischief that made Gerard Johnstone’s 2023 hit M3GAN so enjoyable asserts itself intermittently in M3GAN 2.0, a logical title for a follow-up to the thriller about a murderous robot. —David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 25 June 2025

Six years after the release of the campy cult-classic film A Simple Favor, the original cast—including Blake Lively, Anna Kendrick, Henry Golding, and Andrew Rannells—reunited for the sequel, Another Simple Favor, which is now streaming on Prime Video. —Glamour, 15 May 2025

Wise planned to go campy full-robot for the mysterious bot character. —Bryan Alexander, USA Today, 24 May 2025

Check out its wig-laden, campy music video, directed by Sandy Honig, below. —Nina Corcoran, Pitchfork, 20 May 2025

Word History

Etymology

camp entry 3 + -y entry 1

First Known Use

1932, in the meaning defined above