variants
or 'toon
plural toons or 'toons
: cartoon: such as
a
: comic strip
… launched the 'toon in 1930, with Dagwood as a lazy rich playboy and flapper Blondie as one of his many girlfriends.—
Mike Peters
Mike Peters
b
: animated cartoon
… its most recent live-action adaptation of one of its classic toons, earned a tidy $69 million in its first weekend in theaters, good enough for first place.—Mike Scott
Mike Scott
also
: a character in an animated cartoon
… it's surprisingly easy for the reader too to accept Gary Wolf's wacky universe, where humans interact with 'toons. —The New York Times
The New York Times … witty new catchphrases for the endearingly wiseass little toon Bart Simpson … —Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
: a southeast Asian and Australian tree (Toona ciliata synonym Cedrela toona) of the mahogany family with aromatic dark red to reddish-brown wood
also
: its wood
Examples of toon in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
James Mercadante, Entertainment Weekly, 20 Jan. 2026
Elsewhere, a trio of toons — Sony Pictures Animation’s KPop Demon Hunters, Disney/Pixar’s Elio and Walt Disney Studios’ Zootopia 2 — drew five nominations each, followed by Apple Original Films’ The Lost Bus with four.
—Erik Pedersen, Deadline, 13 Jan. 2026
What really got me was the movie’s last act, which exposes a conspiracy involving the villainous Judge Doom and a paint-thinner-ish goo called Dip that’s lethal just to toons.
—The Atlantic Culture Desk, The Atlantic, 29 Oct. 2025
While animation has traditionally been one of France’s biggest exports, international sales continue to wane for local toon shows – one of the symptoms perhaps of a fast-changing global market whose reverberations are being felt in Normandy.
—Ed Meza, Variety, 5 Sep. 2025
The syndication rights for the toons were weird since the beginning of television.
—Bethy Squires, Vulture, 15 Aug. 2025
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Noun
In an alternate version of 1940s Hollywood where cartoon characters live alongside humans, private detective Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) tries to get to the bottom of who framed toon star Roger Rabbit for murder.
—James Mercadante, Entertainment Weekly, 20 Jan. 2026
Elsewhere, a trio of toons — Sony Pictures Animation’s KPop Demon Hunters, Disney/Pixar’s Elio and Walt Disney Studios’ Zootopia 2 — drew five nominations each, followed by Apple Original Films’ The Lost Bus with four.
—Erik Pedersen, Deadline, 13 Jan. 2026
What really got me was the movie’s last act, which exposes a conspiracy involving the villainous Judge Doom and a paint-thinner-ish goo called Dip that’s lethal just to toons.
—The Atlantic Culture Desk, The Atlantic, 29 Oct. 2025
While animation has traditionally been one of France’s biggest exports, international sales continue to wane for local toon shows – one of the symptoms perhaps of a fast-changing global market whose reverberations are being felt in Normandy.
—Ed Meza, Variety, 5 Sep. 2025
The syndication rights for the toons were weird since the beginning of television.
—Bethy Squires, Vulture, 15 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Toon.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/toon. Accessed 23 Jan. 2026.
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