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childishness

noun

1
as in nonsense

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2
as in inexperience

Related Words

Dissimilar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of childishness Lonnie is a Ferrell-ian blend of narcissism and good-natured childishness, but of the wishy-washiest type. — Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 16 July 2026 The childishness of his expressions infantilized a genuinely vicious regime, painting it as more peevish than petrifying. — Fintan O’Toole, The New York Review of Books, 9 Apr. 2026 The actor relishes all aspects of Dahl’s childishness, and the humanity within the beast emerges in small moments. — Daniel D'addario, Variety, 24 Mar. 2026 Cove, on West Houston Street, does not mark an especially obvious step into maturity or anything narratively pat like that, because McGarry’s cooking and his businesses have never really had so much as a hint of childishness to begin with. — Helen Rosner, New Yorker, 11 Jan. 2026 The gesture’s lack of dignity, its childishness, its pettiness, are completely in character. — Christopher Bonanos, Curbed, 25 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for childishness
  1. nonsense
  2. inexperience
  3. joking
  4. sincerity
  5. buffoonery
  6. frankness
  7. jesting
  8. straightforwardness
Noun
  • What Trump is serving up is precisely the kind of paternalistic nonsense that women have fought against for the past century, now applied to nation states.
    — Rachel Marsden, Hartford Courant, 25 Sep. 2026
  • The Beast in Me now joins a celebrated cohort of series with this same sneaky nonsense buried in their glowing track records, including Downton Abbey, Big Little Lies, and The White Lotus.
    — Kathryn VanArendonk, Vulture, 25 Sep. 2026
Definition of nonsense
Noun
  • Now healthy, his inclusion on the playoff roster would be a gamble that his elite stuff can mask his inexperience.
    — Steve Henson, Los Angeles Times, 16 Sep. 2026
  • Distracted driving, speed, and driver inexperience are all factors that can contribute to motor vehicle accidents in teens.
    — Sarah Vanbuskirk, Parents, 16 Sep. 2026
Definition of inexperience
Noun
  • Arch Manning's joking comments at a news conference about a fake video of coach Steve Sarkisian slapping ESPN reporter Holly Rowe erupted in controversy.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 17 Sep. 2026
  • Indeed, at lunch, instead of separating into groups to eat, all 16 participants form one mega table and spend the half-hour joking and laughing together.
    — Ellise Shafer, Variety, 31 Aug. 2026
Definition of joking
Noun
  • For Chowdhury, the sincerity of that belief is almost beside the point.
    — Clare Duffy, CNN Money, 24 Sep. 2026
  • Spectacle doesn’t usually win acting trophies, and neither does sincerity in service of a franchise.
    — Clayton Davis, Variety, 23 Sep. 2026
Definition of sincerity
Noun
  • Still, there's a remarkable level of buffoonery in his analysis.
    — Bobby Burack OutKick, FOXNews.com, 4 Aug. 2026
  • The show, with its interest in corporate buffoonery, doesn’t quite manage to hand-wave away the queasy implications.
    — Inkoo Kang, New Yorker, 27 Mar. 2026
Definition of buffoonery
Noun
  • The novel, published in 1988, foreshadowed the career to come by taking on, with disarming frankness, everything from child abuse to transracial adoption.
    — Casey Cep, New Yorker, 21 Sep. 2026
  • Horgan, whose Catastrophe charted the ups and downs of a relationship with painful, hilarious honesty, applies the same frankness to the minor indignities of midlife.
    — Angie Han, HollywoodReporter, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of frankness
Noun
  • Hudson showed some subtle support for the jesting knocks to her boyfriend by reposting a clip of his final joke shared on Fox News' official X page.
    — Zoey Lyttle, PEOPLE, 18 May 2026
  • No matter what happened, Dunham could not seem to help posting through it, her public persona one of infinite jesting confession.
    — Madeline Leung Coleman, Vulture, 14 Apr. 2026
Definition of jesting
Noun
  • Their impressiveness came from their straightforwardness, their precision and generosity of flavor, without needless curlicues or misguided deconstruction.
    — Bill Addison, Los Angeles Times, 27 Sep. 2026
  • What is genuinely remarkable, though, is that this meteoric machine drives with the straightforwardness of a Toyota Camry.
    — Sean Evans, Robb Report, 26 Sep. 2026
Definition of straightforwardness

Browse Nearby Words

childish
childishness
childlike
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Cite this Entry

“Childishness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/childishness. Accessed 30 Sep. 2026.

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