mockery

noun

mock·​ery ˈmä-k(ə-)rē 

ˈmȯ-

plural mockeries

1

: insulting or contemptuous action or speech : derision

… laying himself open to the jeers and mockeries of his rebellious subjects …

—E. A. Freeman

2

: a subject of laughter, derision, or sport

… making him turn himself into a merry mockery of all he had once held dear.

—Oliver St. John Gogarty

3

a

: a counterfeit appearance : imitation

… if it was not a man it was a huge and grotesque mockery of man.

—Edgar Rice Burroughs

b

: an insincere, contemptible, or impertinent (see impertinent sense 1a) imitation

makes a mockery of justice

4

: something ridiculously or impudently (see impudent sense 1) unsuitable

… in her bitterness she felt that all rejoicing was mockery.

—George Eliot

Synonyms of mockery

• parody
• joke
• caricature
• sham

Examples of mockery in a Sentence

His kind of personality invites mockery.

the children's cruel mockery of each other

Recent Examples on the Web

The wide-open skies above her new home come to feel like a mockery of her circumstances, promising a boundlessness that remains out of reach. — Inkoo Kang, New Yorker, 10 Sep. 2026

The project is apparently intended to put the long-running laptop controversy behind Biden by turning the source of online mockery into a memecoin. — Camila Grigera Naón, Fortune, 8 Sep. 2026

Woolf ’s love of metaphor—her suspicion and mockery of it too. — Literary Hub, 8 Sep. 2026

Her unusual movements quickly spread on social media, with her performances becoming the subject of widespread mockery and criticism. — Nasha Smith, PEOPLE, 2 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing mockery

• self-mockery

Rhymes for mockery

• crockery
• rockery

Kids Definition

mockery

noun

mock·​ery ˈmäk-(ə-)rē 

ˈmȯk-

plural mockeries

1

: insulting action or speech

2

: someone or something that is laughed at

3

: a ridiculous or poor imitation