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
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of clowning
Tom Smyth, Vulture, 13 Aug. 2025
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for clowning
Noun
-
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
-
Multiple outlets that examined the reporting identified the claim as unverified and labeled the story a hoax; Colbert had previously made a joking on-air reference to streaming platforms but had not announced any deal with Netflix.—
Megan Cartwright,
MSNBC Newsweek,
1 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
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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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The clarinet and piano played musical lines imitating birds.—
Rebecca Coffey,
Forbes.com,
8 Sep. 2025
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In the image, the president is also backdropped by a city beach covered with fire and smoke, seemingly imitating an active war zone.—
Bailey Richards,
PEOPLE,
7 Sep. 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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Using an ice chamber, the team froze mixtures of water, carbon dioxide, methane and ammonia to a bone-chilling –420 degrees Fahrenheit (-253 degrees Celsius), mimicking frigid conditions near the moon's surface.—
Sharmila Kuthunur,
Space.com,
12 Sep. 2025
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The future of marketing for SMBs doesn’t lie in mimicking enterprise strategies.—
Ashot Barseghyan,
Forbes.com,
11 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Clowning.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/clowning. Accessed 17 Sep. 2025.
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