PHONY-BALONEY Synonyms: 70 Similar and Opposite Words

phony-baloney

adjective

ˈfō-nē-bə-ˈlō-nē

variants or phoney-baloney

Definition of phony-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

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of phony-baloney Namely, their own phony-baloney, six-figure jobs. — Howie Carr, Boston Herald, 20 Dec. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for phony-baloney

Adjective

Beware of the stalls selling fake leather or souvenirs made in China.

— Laura Itzkowitz, Travel + Leisure, 8 July 2026
Tired of spending his days simply delighting in psychological torture and revenge, Lestat publicly chases the life of a famous rock star, writing and producing an album and performing in a cross-country tour while maintaining a fake vampire persona.

— CT Jones, Rolling Stone, 7 July 2026

Definition of fake

Adjective

Ildemaro Vargas walked on four pitches with one out, swiped second and scored on a 75-mph ball that Gabriel Moreno dumped down the right-field line for a double.

— Jeff Sanders, San Diego Union-Tribune, 9 July 2026
The visitors had two hits before that, one of which was a two-out double by Mike Yastrzemski off the right field wall before Bart’s game-changing at-bat.

— Chad Bishop, AJC.com, 9 July 2026

Definition of double

Adjective

One sure focus is the rampant grade inflation that exaggerates student achievement and has made graduating high school close to meaningless as an indicator of college preparedness.

— U T Editorial Board, San Diego Union-Tribune, 3 July 2026
This distinction between meaningful and meaningless data evokes signal versus noise, a communication concept formulated by the mathematician Claude Shannon.

— Michael Ashley, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026

Definition of meaningless

Adjective

Often scammers will create phony, but very legitimate appearing domain names.

— Steve Weisman, Forbes.com, 5 July 2026
In the cases before the Supreme Court as well as the wage case before Hall, there is no suggestion that lawyers intentionally buttressed arguments with phony precedents in order to win an unfair advantage.

— Staff Report, Hartford Courant, 26 June 2026

Definition of phony

Adjective

Or means that any comments are supposedly hypocritical.

— Ian Miller OutKick, FOXNews.com, 23 June 2026
Earlier this month, Matsui’s campaign came after Vang for taking corporate donations from Sacramento-area businesses during her city council campaigns, implying that Vang’s vows to not accept money from corporate PACs in her congressional bid is hypocritical.

— Mathew Miranda June 4, Sacbee.com, 4 June 2026

Definition of hypocritical

Adjective

Likewise, lip masks designed to be worn overnight can provide improved hydration and comfort over daytime treatments.

— Caroline Reilly, Forbes.com, 25 Mar. 2026
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

Definition of lip

Adjective

The group was diving in the Golfo Nuevo around the Hu Shun Yu 809 artificial reef.

— Christine Pelisek, PEOPLE, 7 July 2026
Memory chip stocks have seen a massive run-up this year as a supply crunch, fueled by unrelenting artificial demand, allows businesses to set pricing.

— Samantha Subin, CNBC, 7 July 2026

Definition of artificial

Adjective

Examples like sales phone time or the Wells Fargo scandal illustrate how focusing solely on numbers can distort behavior, leading to superficial achievements or even unethical practices.

— Dr. Diane Hamilton, Forbes.com, 8 July 2026
The performances of those groups might have resembled one another in some superficial way, but the individual politics of each do matter and shouldn’t be lumped together on account of aesthetics.

— Jay Caspian Kang, New Yorker, 7 July 2026

Definition of superficial

Browse Nearby Words

phony

phony-baloney

phonying

See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

Style

“Phony-baloney.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/phony-baloney. Accessed 10 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation

Synonyms of phony-baloney

adjective

Example Sentences

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

effulgence

Popular in Grammar & Usage

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Commonly Misspelled Words

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)

Popular in Wordplay

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List

One-Word Oxymorons: Bittersweet, Spendthrift, and More

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

The Words of the Week - Jul 10

Popular

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List

Games & Quizzes