variants
or phoney-baloney
as in fake
not being or expressing what one appears to be or express
if you believe the company's phony-baloney press releases, it's in business solely for the benefit of mankind
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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Recent Examples of phony-baloney
Namely, their own phony-baloney, six-figure jobs.
—
Howie Carr, Boston Herald, 20 Dec. 2025
The script is by David Koepp (writer of the best Mission: Impossible, the 1996 Brian De Palma iteration), and it’s filled with shimmery red herrings and liberal lashings of phony-baloney techno-spy stuff.
—Stephanie Zacharek, TIME, 6 Mar. 2025
Howie Carr, Boston Herald, 20 Dec. 2025
The script is by David Koepp (writer of the best Mission: Impossible, the 1996 Brian De Palma iteration), and it’s filled with shimmery red herrings and liberal lashings of phony-baloney techno-spy stuff.
—Stephanie Zacharek, TIME, 6 Mar. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for phony-baloney
Adjective
-
The difference between a real deadline, imposed for legitimate reasons from without, and a fake one, conjured from within, is like the difference between eating brunch and seeing it on Instagram.—
Joshua Rothman,
New Yorker,
20 Mar. 2026
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Later, O’Brien touted a fake company tasked with reformatting movies for smaller and smaller handheld devices, but the joke missed the mark.—
Peter Tonguette,
The Washington Examiner,
20 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
D'Orazio followed with a two-run, ground-rule double.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
15 Mar. 2026
-
Batting in the leadoff spot, Boston’s top shortstop prospect, Franklin Arias, got the scoring started in the bottom of the third with a go-ahead two-run double off the wall.—
Gabrielle Starr,
Boston Herald,
15 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
But the Longhorns' all-time leader in assists and steals also knows that regional assignments are meaningless without first- and second-round wins.—
Danny Davis,
Austin American Statesman,
16 Mar. 2026
-
There’s a heartwarming idiocy to their pursuit, yet what festers underneath is their inability to process grief consciously and the fear that those who deem their existence meaningless might be right.—
Carlos Aguilar,
Variety,
14 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
The movie makes no secret of its phony mechanics.—
Amy Nicholson,
Los Angeles Times,
4 Mar. 2026
-
In the cases before the Supreme Court as well as the wage case before Hall, there is no suggestion that lawyers intentionally buttressed their arguments with phony precedents in order to win an unfair advantage.—
Edmund H. Mahony,
Hartford Courant,
1 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
The tech entrepreneur, who founded a fitness app and a financial management platform catering to young and wealthy customers, also characterizes Khanna’s stock trading as hypocritical since the congressman campaigns on easing inequality.—
Bloomberg,
Mercury News,
3 Mar. 2026
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The permanent observer of the 22-nation Arab League, Maged Abdelaziz, suggested Israel was being hypocritical in justifying its military attack by saying it was intended to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.—
Edith M. Lederer,
Fortune,
28 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Tatianna points to cinnamon as a conductor of heat—one commonly used in lip plumper products to achieve a sultry pout.—
Essence,
Essence,
23 Nov. 2025
-
The pop of color offers a shimmer-free (rare!) means of warming up a wedding look and works equally well at lip level.—
Calin Van Paris,
Vogue,
12 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
The 287-foot freighter was intentionally sunk to create an artificial reef in 1985.—
David Goodhue,
Miami Herald,
14 Mar. 2026
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The artificial septet also nabbed the trophy for worst supporting actor.—
Lisa Respers France,
CNN Money,
14 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Still, the researcher Shaoyu Yuan thinks that even superficial trends like Chinamaxxing may serve an unexpected purpose.—
Ashish Valentine,
NPR,
13 Mar. 2026
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Currently, the simulator cannot train clinicians to diagnose superficial endometriosis.—
Tanya Lewis,
Scientific American,
12 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Phony-baloney.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/phony-baloney. Accessed 21 Mar. 2026.
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