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 masquerading
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2
as in cutting up
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of clowning
Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 13 May 2026
As the race unfolds in real time, there’s clowning, collisions, sabotage, surprises, comedy, chaos and more.
—Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Apr. 2026
Yes, this is the modern clowning that all the thinkpieces are thinking about.
—Bethy Squires, Vulture, 1 Mar. 2026
With an impressive ability to do accents and a background in clowning, Storrie is made for this.
—Tiffany Kelly, Entertainment Weekly, 27 Feb. 2026
The balance is also what clowning is.
—Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 16 Feb. 2026
There’s no grandstanding, no frantic clowning.
—Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 11 Feb. 2026
The clowning isn’t over just yet, though.
—Larisha Paul, Rolling Stone, 13 Jan. 2026
As with older clowning traditions, the early American circus clowns were adults performing taboo acts to shock and delight other adults.
—Time, 30 Oct. 2025
Noun
The clowning might be a little too effortful.
—Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 13 May 2026
As the race unfolds in real time, there’s clowning, collisions, sabotage, surprises, comedy, chaos and more.
—Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Apr. 2026
Yes, this is the modern clowning that all the thinkpieces are thinking about.
—Bethy Squires, Vulture, 1 Mar. 2026
With an impressive ability to do accents and a background in clowning, Storrie is made for this.
—Tiffany Kelly, Entertainment Weekly, 27 Feb. 2026
The balance is also what clowning is.
—Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 16 Feb. 2026
There’s no grandstanding, no frantic clowning.
—Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 11 Feb. 2026
The clowning isn’t over just yet, though.
—Larisha Paul, Rolling Stone, 13 Jan. 2026
As with older clowning traditions, the early American circus clowns were adults performing taboo acts to shock and delight other adults.
—Time, 30 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for clowning
Noun
-
Sometimes a playful comment, an unexpected reply or a joking callout between brands takes on a life of its own online.—
Expert Panel®,
Forbes.com,
20 May 2026
-
Despite that underlying tension, kids play on the street outside while the large family has a dynamic like any other — noisily squabbling, joking, or in the case of the matriarchal grandmother, Mariam (Hiam Abbass), preparing a meal in a kitchen plagued by constant utility outages.—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
15 May 2026
Verb
-
In response, staff proposed cutting up to five meetings per commission in the next fiscal year, along with other cost-saving measures such as freezing community ambassador stipends, to help close the city’s projected $66 million budget gap.—
Sacbee.com,
Sacbee.com,
19 May 2026
-
Misael eating meat alone, cutting up pieces with an enormous knife while barely lit by the flames in front of him, and, sporadically, almost-silent lightning bursts in the distant background.—
Vadim Rizov,
IndieWire,
16 May 2026
Verb
-
In a case of life imitating art, this whodunnit explores the investigation behind her disappearance, strangely resembling one of Christie’s own novels, where everyone in her life becomes a suspect, including her brother, Monty (Trevena).—
Alex Ritman,
Variety,
1 June 2026
-
Zoe, born seven years later, grew up watching them, imitating them and wanting to be them.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
30 May 2026
Verb
-
Bevel was horsing around with the Reverend James Orange and Andy Young in the courtyard under King's balcony, according to Orange.—
Gail Sheehy,
Vanity Fair,
20 Feb. 2026
-
In April 2020, Iglesias shared a video of him horsing around with Lucy and Nicholas as the pair attempted to climb on his back for a ride.—
Andrea Wurzburger,
PEOPLE,
19 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
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
-
Receivers have cratered seasons with me-over-we buffoonery.—
Troy Renck,
Denver Post,
19 Mar. 2026
Verb
-
Instead, pluralism, naturally associated with diversity and popular agency, was made into the cultural face of capitalism—it was branded as a false openness mimicking the free market, as a flattening that might cause art and art history to lose the threads of progress and quality.—
Katy Siegel,
Artforum,
2 June 2026
-
Inspired by wetland plants like mangroves, 12-year-old Ella Barth and Esme Tsai’s prototype glass funnel uses layers of coffee filter paper, gravel, sand, ion exchange resin, charcoal and cotton, mimicking a natural filtration process to help rid local tap water of its chalky taste.—
Karen Billing,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
2 June 2026
Verb
-
Zeus did not approve of his daughter fooling around with this mortal roughneck hunter and put out a hit on Orion.—
Mike Lynch,
Twin Cities,
8 Mar. 2026
-
The transition was rough for Ansari, who wasn’t fluent in English and often got in trouble for fooling around in school.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
7 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
As for Abdul-Mateen, the clownery will resume for him on Broadway.—
Jessica Wang,
EW.com,
1 Sep. 2022
-
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
Cite this Entry
“Clowning.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/clowning. Accessed 8 Jun. 2026.
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