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tawdry

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noun

Synonym Chooser

How does the adjective tawdry contrast with its synonyms?

Some common synonyms of tawdry are flashy, garish, gaudy, and meretricious. While all these words mean "vulgarly or cheaply showy," tawdry applies to what is at once gaudy and cheap and sleazy.

tawdry saloons

When is flashy a more appropriate choice than tawdry?

In some situations, the words flashy and tawdry are roughly equivalent. However, flashy implies an effect of brilliance quickly and easily seen to be shallow or vulgar.

a flashy nightclub act

In what contexts can garish take the place of tawdry?

The meanings of garish and tawdry largely overlap; however, garish describes what is distressingly or offensively bright.

garish neon signs

When is it sensible to use gaudy instead of tawdry?

While in some cases nearly identical to tawdry, gaudy implies a tasteless use of overly bright, often clashing colors or excessive ornamentation.

circus performers in gaudy costumes

When would meretricious be a good substitute for tawdry?

The words meretricious and tawdry can be used in similar contexts, but meretricious stresses falsity and may describe a tawdry show that beckons with a false allure or promise.

a meretricious wasteland of casinos and bars

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 tawdry
Noun
Various tawdry plots are picked up and discarded as the story staggers onward. Charlie Lee, Harpers Magazine, 18 June 2025 The film was a hit on 42nd Street, possessing a certain tawdry entertainment value. Katie Rife, IndieWire, 11 June 2025 The tawdry soap is the favorite show consumed by the titular trash-TV-loving security robot, Murderbot (Alexander Skarsgård). Bryan Alexander, USA Today, 24 May 2025 Born a modest gathering of kindred spirits, the festival hath blossomed into a celebration of the days of yore, where knights do clash, bards sing sweet airs, merchants display their wares most fine and wenches doth tease in tawdry jests. Kirsten Fiscus, Nashville Tennessean, 22 May 2025 See All Example Sentences for tawdry
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tawdry
Adjective
  • Overall, this wasn’t a terrible episode, but having our heroes start in the UK and then end up in Spain in the first episode felt rushed and wasteful.
    Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 7 Sep. 2025
  • Both men are good, both men are bad and both men have made terrible mistakes.
    Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 7 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • What was the strategic benefit to the US of all this geopolitical trumpery?
    Peter Bergen, CNN, 28 May 2022
  • So will the border continue to vanish in the face of nativist backlash and a trumpery, gimcrack wall?
    Felipe Fernández-Armesto, WSJ, 25 June 2018
Adjective
  • But prorating three years of player profits down to 12 months, as UEFA’s rule does, reduces the immediate efficacy of successful trading in the market, the very strategy that poorer clubs increasingly rely on to climb the ladder.
    Chris Weatherspoon, New York Times, 5 Sep. 2025
  • Like most extended car warranty providers, CarShield excludes pre-existing conditions that existed before your warranty took effect, as well as damage resulting from poor maintenance, neglect or intentional abuse.
    Brian Sloan, CNBC, 4 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • The cotton-cashmere blend is lightweight and breathable but has just enough coziness to make a chilly flight feel less miserable.
    Rosie Marder, Travel + Leisure, 3 Sep. 2025
  • The creator of Breaking Bad and prequel spinoff Better Call Saul reteams with his Saul star for the genre-bending series about the most miserable person on Earth’s pursuit to save humanity from happiness.
    EW.com, EW.com, 1 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • None of the 95 rooms at this palatial property, which first opened in the 1860s, is the same, and the decor is an eccentric mishmash that combines every era since then, from Victorian fripperies to sinuously streamlined Art Nouveau.
    Laura Dannen Redman, Robb Report, 28 July 2025
  • In tonight’s episode, Aurora has more to worry about than mere frippery.
    Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 30 June 2025
Adjective
  • Horrible Bosses When three friends — played by Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis — regroup after a terrible day at their respective jobs, the fed-up employees drunkenly conspire to murder their seriously rotten employers and attempt to follow through.
    James Mercadante, PEOPLE, 4 Sep. 2025
  • He was once asked to accept a dead whale; another time, an entire shipping container of rotten garlic.
    Kyra Morris, The Atlantic, 22 Aug. 2025
Noun
  • Crowds gathered at sunrise for the Dawn Patrol load-in then changed into their finery to take in the sights on the lawn during the day.
    Eileen Falkenberg-Hull, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 Aug. 2025
  • The photo by Getty Images' royal photographer Chris Jackson showed the Princess Royal and Sir Tim, 70, standing and smiling together in their finery before the French state banquet at Windsor Castle on July 9.
    Janine Henni, People.com, 14 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • But that cheaper investment has largely been eviscerated, according to a cadre of sports bankers CNBC interviewed.
    Michael Ozanian, CNBC, 4 Sep. 2025
  • Travelers can snag cheap flights to explore New York in September and October.
    Kathleen Wong, USA Today, 4 Sep. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Tawdry.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tawdry. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.

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