as in hokey
tiresomely obvious and unsophisticated
the show's shamelessly cornball jokes appealed to small-town America
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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
Evan Minsker, Rolling Stone, 5 Sep. 2024
Magic acts and cornball humor remained staples.
—Ron Grossman, Chicago Tribune, 26 Mar. 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
Another scream for this bad, unabashedly cornball line.
—Evan Minsker, Rolling Stone, 5 Sep. 2024
Magic acts and cornball humor remained staples.
—Ron Grossman, Chicago Tribune, 26 Mar. 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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What ultimately keeps the house from feeling hokey or trite is Glazer’s commitment to her all-encompassing taste.—
Mark Lamster
Architecture Critic,
Dallas Morning News,
10 Feb. 2026
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With no internet, their only entertainment comes from booze, ping-pong, rudimentary video games, and VHS tapes of hokey old game shows.—
Richard Edwards,
Space.com,
21 Nov. 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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Cut into individual pieces or break into rustic shards.—
Marianne Williams,
Southern Living,
14 Mar. 2026
-
The main living room is a more formal space, crowned by a soaring tray ceiling, while the family room—paneled in pecky cypress—offers a slightly more rustic feel.—
Tori Latham,
Robb Report,
12 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Christopher Kosakowski, United States, 2025 A circus clown celebrating his birthday alone receives a mysterious gift box harboring an antique zoetrope that spins his world into mayhem.—
Alison Foreman,
IndieWire,
11 Mar. 2026
-
The same clown who is owned by Vladimir Putin.—
Voice of the People,
New York Daily News,
11 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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The correlation between the songs and Jim’s life may be corny, but the film clearly presents Morrison’s life as a search for these songs.—
Bilge Ebiri,
Vulture,
10 Mar. 2026
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Foligno always skirted the line between earnest and corny, but nobody ever doubted his sincerity.—
Scott Powers,
New York Times,
6 Mar. 2026
Noun
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That set-up makes Cole relatively unique among prediction markets’ headliners, many of whom are suspected of exploiting insider info to dupe rubes for short-term gains.—
Joe Wilkins,
Futurism,
26 Feb. 2026
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Harry would be right to be bitter; Sally’s optimism was for rubes.—
Alexandra Schwartz,
New Yorker,
17 Dec. 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 22 Mar. 2026.
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