hunky

adjective \ ˈhəŋ-kē \

Updated on: 7 May 2018

Definition of hunky

hunkier; hunkiest

: being a hunk : attractive and usually well-built

the film's hunky leading man

Recent Examples of hunky from the Web

Facebook has long fought with the fake profiles - touting photos of beautiful women and hunky men - that scammers use to spark relationships with users, snatch money and disappear.

— drew harwell and elizabeth dwoskin, chicagotribune.com, "Facebook's dating service is a chance to meet the catfisher, advertiser or scammer of your dreams," 4 May 2018
The latter includes Berthier's order that Pauline stop seeing hunky soccer coach Stéphane (Guillaume Gouix), a former high school boyfriend with whom she's recently rekindled a romance.

— gary goldstein, latimes.com, "The political drama 'This Is Our Land' is set in France, but it could just as easily be America," 26 Apr. 2018
Zac Efron portrays the hunky main character Logan Thibault, which means this Sparks-gem is already on good footing.

— noelle devoe, Seventeen, "A Definitive Ranking of the 8 Best Nicholas Sparks Movies," 25 Oct. 2017
The Obama administration reported in January 2017, shortly before Trump took office, that everything was hunky-dory.

— umair irfan, Vox, "The EPA’s fuel standard rollback will hurt clean carmakers like Tesla," 2 Apr. 2018
For what is essentially the Broadway version of a booze cruise, Escape to Margaritaville tells the tale of hunky island bar singer Tully Mars (played by Paul Alexander Nolan).

— maria ward, Vogue, "The Jimmy Buffett Musical Escape to Margaritaville Makes Its Big, Boozy Broadway Debut," 16 Mar. 2018
This season Penelope gets a viable love interest, the almost unbearably hunky Max (Ed Quinn), a veteran himself and an EMT.

— margaret lyons, New York Times, "Review: The Euphoria of ‘One Day at a Time’," 25 Jan. 2018
Elsa leaves Arendelle on a mission of self-discovery, while Anna hooks up with hunky ice deliveryman Kristoff (played in the musical by Jelani Alladin) and Olaf (singing puppeteer Greg Hildreth) to find her sister.

— USA TODAY, "Broadway gets 'Frozen': How a modern movie classic became a hot new musical," 18 Mar. 2018
In her mind, everything was hunky-dory in Abbott Land.

— ariana romero, refinery29.com, "Life Sentence Isn't Pretty Little Liars, & That's A Good Thing," 7 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'hunky.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Hunky

noun Hun·ky \ ˈhəŋ-kē \

variants: or less commonly Hunkie

Definition of Hunky

plural Hunkies

dated, usually disparaging + offensive

: a person of central or east European birth or descent

Origin and Etymology of hunky

alteration of Hungarian

First Known Use: circa 1896

in the meaning defined above

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