as in hokey
tiresomely obvious and unsophisticated
the show's shamelessly cornball jokes appealed to small-town America
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in hick
an awkward or simple person especially from a small town or the country
a movie about a cornball making his way through a world of cynical sophisticates
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of cornball
Ron Grossman, Chicago Tribune, 26 Mar. 2023
Soderbergh keeps cutting around the cornball potential of the material.
—A.a. Dowd, Chron, 7 Feb. 2023
Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 12 July 2024
Ivan Reitman’s family comedy is nothing if not cornball.
—EW.com, 2 Mar. 2024
See All Example Sentences for cornball
Adjective
Magic acts and cornball humor remained staples.
—Ron Grossman, Chicago Tribune, 26 Mar. 2023
Soderbergh keeps cutting around the cornball potential of the material.
—A.a. Dowd, Chron, 7 Feb. 2023
Noun
These realist inflections belie a charmingly cornball story.
—Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 12 July 2024
Ivan Reitman’s family comedy is nothing if not cornball.
—EW.com, 2 Mar. 2024
See All Example Sentences for cornball
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cornball
Adjective
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However, sometimes managers plan for hokey-cokey transfers or immediately reverse a decision due to regret.—
Holly Shand,
New York Times,
23 Oct. 2025
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So, what was the key to it not being hokey?—
Chris O'Falt,
IndieWire,
20 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Which is to say, this isn’t the story of a greedy, materialistic man who suffers a crisis of conscience while trying to pry a priceless treasure away from an uneducated hick who doesn’t know any better.—
David Ehrlich,
IndieWire,
29 Oct. 2025
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Ricky develops romantic feelings for Chad even though Russ plays him as a soft-spoken, possibly dim rural hick who may well be a literal man-child.—
Nicholas Quah,
Vulture,
29 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Warm, gauzy photographs depict a rustic kitchen hung with antique baskets and gleaming copper pots; militantly tidy arrangements of canapés; and a radiant young Stewart in a spotless white dress.—
Hannah Goldfield,
New Yorker,
3 Nov. 2025
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The cozy lodge rooms, rustic yet luxurious cabins, and glamping tents all nod to refined Canadiana—think wood headboards, plaid throw blankets, and woodsy touches like vintage snowshoes hanging on the wall.—
Lisa Kadane,
Travel + Leisure,
2 Nov. 2025
Noun
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This guy might be single-handedly responsible for generations of people having an irrational fear of clowns.—
Steven Thrash,
Entertainment Weekly,
24 Oct. 2025
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Unlike past attempts at fictionalizing his life, Macmanus barely touches on the fact that Gacy had a hobby of dressing up like a clown, and doesn’t show any actual murders in the series.—
Elisabeth Garber-Paul,
Rolling Stone,
24 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Humor… never says anything corny.—
Andre Gee,
Rolling Stone,
31 Oct. 2025
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The special effects can look corny and the story overloads us with too many characters.—
Randy Myers,
Mercury News,
24 Oct. 2025
Noun
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As for partisan rubes like Senator Van Hollen, Maryland can do better.—
Chris Roemer,
Baltimore Sun,
26 June 2025
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There was no quintessential American, so Twain imagined him: a wily rube, cynical toward the same refinements of Europe that inspired awe in him.—
Caity Weaver,
The Atlantic,
5 June 2025
Adjective
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Cattle—even corn-fed ones—tend to spend much of their life on pasture eating grass, which leads to a lot of methane burps, but growing that grass is not carbon intensive.—
Sarah Zhang,
The Atlantic,
8 Jan. 2025
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Never underestimate a corn-fed basic from Hockeytown.—
Meredith Blake,
Los Angeles Times,
29 May 2023
Noun
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Using his Hollywood makeup father’s prosthetics, Holliday transforms himself into hayseed-like Chad Powers.—
Baz Bamigboye,
Deadline,
30 Sep. 2025
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Baby Billy’s first full-frontal scene is more a testament to Walton Goggins’s incredible hayseed bravado in the rule.—
Scott Tobias,
Vulture,
31 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Cornball.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cornball. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.
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