as in cornball
tiresomely obvious and unsophisticated
their father's sense of humor was hokey beyond belief and most people's endurance
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Recent Examples of hokey
So, what was the key to it not being hokey?
—
Chris O'Falt, IndieWire, 20 Oct. 2025
These days, Christmas movies, broadly and charitably defined, seem to be synonymous with the brassy, hokey, sickly sweet sort of fare that has a permanent home on the Hallmark Channel and is in perpetual rotation on Netflix.
—Peter Tonguette, The Washington Examiner, 19 Sep. 2025
Flanagan's film leans into some of the hokey aspects of the story that Kubrick rejected in favor of a much colder sort of horror.
—James Grebey, Time, 12 Sep. 2025
Surrounded by a bunch of big, hokey hooks from veterans and newcomers of the pop-country elite—Daris Rucker, Luke Combs, Thomas Rhett—and an army of songwriters, BigX goes through the ups and downs of a broken heart.
—Alphonse Pierre, Pitchfork, 28 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for hokey
Chris O'Falt, IndieWire, 20 Oct. 2025
These days, Christmas movies, broadly and charitably defined, seem to be synonymous with the brassy, hokey, sickly sweet sort of fare that has a permanent home on the Hallmark Channel and is in perpetual rotation on Netflix.
—Peter Tonguette, The Washington Examiner, 19 Sep. 2025
Flanagan's film leans into some of the hokey aspects of the story that Kubrick rejected in favor of a much colder sort of horror.
—James Grebey, Time, 12 Sep. 2025
Surrounded by a bunch of big, hokey hooks from veterans and newcomers of the pop-country elite—Daris Rucker, Luke Combs, Thomas Rhett—and an army of songwriters, BigX goes through the ups and downs of a broken heart.
—Alphonse Pierre, Pitchfork, 28 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for hokey
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hokey
Adjective
-
There’s a fair share of cornball dialogue in Cornelius Uliano and Bryan Schulz’s screenplay, as well as an excess of reassuring schmaltz at the fadeout.—
Dennis Harvey,
Variety,
3 Oct. 2024
-
Another scream for this bad, unabashedly cornball line.—
Evan Minsker,
Rolling Stone,
5 Sep. 2024
Adjective
-
Their rustic aesthetic heralded an acoustic music boom that included acts like Ed Sheeran, Noah Kahan, and Zach Bryan, and their sound crept into the rhythms of pop.—
Jon Dolan,
Rolling Stone,
21 Feb. 2026
-
Elsewhere in the hotel, the look is rustic and Mediterranean, combining traditional elements like wooden ceiling beams, elegant canopies draped over king-size beds, and carpets made of natural fibers.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
20 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
Kate Bosworth is a corny idiot.—
Ky Henderson,
Rolling Stone,
15 Feb. 2026
-
The film’s eccentric flourishes may sound corny, but the writer-directors Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer ground the premise in a deeply sincere sense of yearning.—
Shirley Li,
The Atlantic,
14 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
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
-
Never underestimate a corn-fed basic from Hockeytown.—
Meredith Blake,
Los Angeles Times,
29 May 2023
Cite this Entry
“Hokey.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hokey. Accessed 1 Mar. 2026.
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