hunky

1 of 2

adjective

hunkier; hunkiest
: being a hunk : attractive and usually well-built
the film's hunky leading man

Hunky

2 of 2

noun

Hun·​ky ˈhəŋ-kē How to pronounce Hunky (audio)
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
Adjective
In fact, the abrupt and ignoble death of his fan-favorite character, the hunky werewolf Alcide Herveaux, early in the final season of the HBO show left him eager to make up for it. Jessica Wang, EW.com, 13 Mar. 2024 Henry’s first adult romance novel, Beach Read, came out in 2020 and follows its romance-author protagonist in a summer bet with her hunky neighbor (a literary fiction author) to convince him of the genre’s merit—a cheeky meta-commentary of sorts about her own writing. Cnt Editors, Condé Nast Traveler, 8 Mar. 2024 Fixing Spanish Cinema Not that everything is hunky dory for Spanish cinema. John Hopewell, Variety, 8 Mar. 2024 Move over, One Direction: There’s a new five-piece, British, hunky boy band in town. Hannah Dailey, Billboard, 6 Mar. 2024 The film’s other special something is Tews, who stars as a hunky fur trapper named Jean Kayak who wins over a woman by selling beaver pelts to her overprotective father. Erik Piepenburg, New York Times, 5 Mar. 2024 Tubi 08 Crown for Christmas (2015) Part Maid in Manhattan (2002), part A Christmas Prince, this one is about a former hotel cleaner (Danica McKellar) who becomes the governess to a young princess (Ellie Botterill) — who happens to have a hunky older brother (Rupert Penry-Jones). EW.com, 11 Dec. 2023 Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky escaped to Tavarua, a small island resort in Fiji, where the hunky actor took their son on a full-day fishing trip and caught a swordfish big enough to feed the local village, while his Spanish actress-model wife surfed and snorkeled. Beth Landman, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 Jan. 2024 Ethan Peck makes a wonderful – and yes, hunky – Spock. Randy Myers, The Mercury News, 25 Jan. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hunky.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

alteration of Hungarian

First Known Use

Adjective

1972, in the meaning defined above

Noun

circa 1896, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of hunky was circa 1896

Dictionary Entries Near hunky

Cite this Entry

“Hunky.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hunky. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

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