turkeys

noun

plural of turkey
1
as in geese
a person who lacks good sense or judgment only a turkey would think it's a good idea to go for a jog when the weather drops below zero

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in idiots
a stupid person you turkey, that wasn't my boyfriend—it was my brother!

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in disasters
something that has failed his business venture ended up being a turkey, and he lost quite a bit of money on it

Synonyms & Similar Words

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 turkeys She’s loved by her family of humans (the Osteens) and other farm animals (including Elsie the cow; goats Honey, Dolly, Roger, Polly and Dodger; and Tom, the king of the turkeys who stalks around his enclosure like a pharaoh). — Emily L. Mahoney, Miami Herald, 4 Sep. 2026 Hickey is also accused of helping three other people illegally harvest turkeys. — Kris Millgate, Outdoor Life, 21 Aug. 2026 Stephanie Magallon, the utility’s regional communications representative confirmed there had been six outages since July — and the cause was wild turkeys. — Kathe Tanner, Sacbee.com, 17 Aug. 2026 The million-dollar question concerned the Thanksgiving tradition of the president pardoning two turkeys. — Hilary Lewis, HollywoodReporter, 30 July 2026 Jimmy Kimmel's hunch helps with final question The last question posed the biggest challenge for Ding, but thankfully Kimmel had an inkling about turkeys that hadn’t received presidential pardons. — Erin Jensen, USA Today, 30 July 2026 The students and club members raise cows, goats, lambs, hogs, turkeys and more, spending hours feeding and training them daily and preparing them for showing. — Heather McRea, Oc Register, 25 July 2026 After wild turkeys attacked an 83-year-old woman in May 2026, sending her to the emergency room for stitches, police warned residents of Alameda, California, to avoid interacting with the animals. — Elan Abrell, The Conversation, 22 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for turkeys
  1. geese
  2. idiots
  3. disasters
  4. lunatics
  5. morons
  6. failures
  7. nuts
  8. bombs
Noun
  • There are no Canada geese any more (not due to renaming, due to the Incident).
    — Alexandra Petri, The Atlantic, 27 Aug. 2026
  • This is good old Mother Earth, and the Inuit people have thrived here for a few thousand years, living cheek to jowl with muskox, polar bears, caribou, tundra grizzlies, red fox, Arctic fox and hordes of ducks and geese.
    — Ron Spomer, Outdoor Life, 19 Aug. 2026
Definition of geese
Noun
  • That's the continous nonsense these idiots provide to a website like OutKick.
    — Joe Kinsey OutKick, FOXNews.com, 4 Aug. 2026
  • Tallahassee lawmakers must think their constituents are idiots.
    — Letters to the Editor, The Orlando Sentinel, 1 Aug. 2026
Definition of idiots
Noun
  • Getting an accurate count of immigrants of various statuses is useful when assigning resources for public health emergencies or natural or human-made disasters.
    — Terry Tang, Los Angeles Times, 11 Sep. 2026
  • The chapter also examines military disasters caused not by geography but by failures of leadership, organization, discipline, and judgment.
    — Ethan Teekah, Encyclopedia Britannica, 11 Sep. 2026
Definition of disasters
Noun
  • Republicans see an opportunity here, portraying progressive and socialist Democrats as lunatics and communists.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 9 Aug. 2026
  • While sane Americans were celebrating the MLB All-Star Game in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, the lunatics in Portland, Oregon were cheering along as two men made out on a baseball field during a 'Heated Rivalry' theme night.
    — Joe Kinsey OutKick, FOXNews.com, 15 July 2026
Definition of lunatics
Noun
  • There are complicated brain-chemistry factors involved that have to do with testosterone, and dopaminergic systems, and kappa-opioid receptors, all of which seem to add up to a Jim Gaffigan joke about how men are morons compared with their wives.
    — McKay Coppins, The Atlantic, 12 Mar. 2026
  • The Dilbert principle — traced back to a quote in a 1995 strip — posited that managers and higher-ups are actually successful morons whose stubbornness is confused for real leadership qualities.
    — Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 13 Jan. 2026
Definition of morons
Noun
  • Alpha has achieved several successful launches, but setbacks and failures have kept Firefly from establishing a routine launch cadence.
    — Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 6 Sep. 2026
  • The convention, a novelty that doesn’t involve the party business typical of a gathering in a presidential year, is expected to contrast what the party sees as GOP wins, with Trump at the helm, against Democratic failures.
    — Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 6 Sep. 2026
Definition of failures
Noun
  • The Central Valley is known as America’s salad bowl, for its vast production fruits, vegetables and nuts that stock refrigerators and kitchen tables across America.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 5 Sep. 2026
  • Many of California’s Asian American leaders have come through that boot camp, which provides training on the nuts-and-bolts of organizing, media relations, and messaging.
    — Gene Maddaus, Variety, 2 Sep. 2026
Definition of nuts
Noun
  • Josh Baker and fellow investigative journalist Sara Obeidat are in Damascus as bombs fall and gunfights break out.
    — Josh Baker, NPR, 10 Sep. 2026
  • Shahzad said he was trained by the Pakistani Taliban on how to make bombs.
    — Mark Morales, CNN Money, 10 Sep. 2026
Definition of bombs

Browse Nearby Words

turkey
turkeys
turmoil
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Turkeys.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/turkeys. Accessed 15 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of quorum

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

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

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

Popular in Wordplay

See More

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Back to School Vocabulary

Words from the 'Odyssey'

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of
See More

Popular

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Back to School Vocabulary
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
funny guinea pig in glasses reading a book
Challenging Words You Should Know Vol 2 Words to the wise
See All