as in joking
wildly playful or mischievous behavior
our coworker's clowning was distracting, but fun to watch
Synonyms & Similar Words
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1
as in miming
Related Words
2
as in cutting up
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of clowning
Tom Smyth, Vulture, 13 Aug. 2025
This is a work in which the slapstick clowning and the tricky verbal non sequiturs should be merely the surface for roiling undercurrents of anguish, futility, despair and fear.
—David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
Verb
Finally, after plenty of clowning, Taylor Swift has revealed that her 12th album is on the way, titled The Life of a Showgirl.
—Tom Smyth, Vulture, 13 Aug. 2025
This is a work in which the slapstick clowning and the tricky verbal non sequiturs should be merely the surface for roiling undercurrents of anguish, futility, despair and fear.
—David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for clowning
Noun
-
Only an Aries, like Lily, can take Barney’s jabs in a joking way.—
Lisa Stardust,
PEOPLE,
19 Sep. 2025
-
When Peanut pulled his second escape act, his owners knew where to look and handled Peanut's disappearance in a joking manner.—
Michael Nied,
People.com,
2 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Swift said, miming Jason holding up his beer can.—
Rachel McRady,
People.com,
14 Aug. 2025
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Harris told me, miming fireworks.—
Nancy Walecki,
The Atlantic,
7 Aug. 2025
Verb
-
Ford is planning on cutting up to 1,000 roles in electric-vehicle production in Germany.—
Hugh Cameron,
MSNBC Newsweek,
16 Sep. 2025
-
Proposition 50 would turn back the clock of progress, cutting up our neighborhoods for political gain and silencing the very voices that fought hardest for fairness.—
Bernadette Suarez,
Oc Register,
15 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Their relationship, tentative, intimate, and defiant, lingers long after the satirical skewering of male buffoonery has faded.—
Leila Latif,
IndieWire,
5 Sep. 2025
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He’s been tinkering with this messaging on and off since damn near the start of the century, when his criticism of the genre shifted from the power-holding executives (both white and Black) of the music industry who were profiting off buffoonery, a la Bamboozled, to rap music itself.—
Alphonse Pierre,
Pitchfork,
15 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Only one case has resulted in federal charges for imitating an officer – another break from the past four administrations, when roughly half of the ICE-imposter cases were charged under federal statutes.—
Allison Gordon,
CNN Money,
2 Oct. 2025
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The fact that these programs are becoming adept at imitating consciousness, however, may be all that matters for now.—
Webb Wright,
The Atlantic,
1 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Gisin hopes that by fooling around with measurements of these more exotic states, physicists will come to better understand the role of measurement in general.—
Quanta Magazine,
Quanta Magazine,
8 Aug. 2025
Noun
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As for Abdul-Mateen, the clownery will resume for him on Broadway.—
Jessica Wang,
EW.com,
1 Sep. 2022
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Tirhakah Love is a senior writer at New York Magazine and the host of the new evening newsletter Dinner Party, a daily email that touches on all things entertainment — that means film, television, music, tech, and gaming — plus politics and corporate clownery.—
Vulture,
Vulture,
29 Apr. 2022
Verb
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The musical instruments of this region are crafted from the earth, mimicking birds that fly along the banks of rivers, the sound of rain or the beating of a heart.—
Karla Gachet,
NPR,
1 Oct. 2025
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In a speech on the subject on the Senate floor in August, the senator was flanked by a placard with images of hemp products in packages mimicking snacks such as Doritos and Oreos.—
Lucas Aulbach,
Louisville Courier Journal,
1 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Clowning.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/clowning. Accessed 8 Oct. 2025.
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