noun
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empty talk; nonsense
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empty or insincere speechmaking by a politician to please voters or gain publicity
Etymology
Origin of bunkum
An Americansim dating back to 1815–20; after a speech in the16th Congress (1819–21), by F. Walker, who said he was bound to speak for Buncombe (a county in the district in North Carolina that he represented)
Explanation
Bunkum is anything unacceptable, especially ridiculous lies. Calling something bunkum is like saying it's nonsense or rubbish. There's a lot of nonsense in the world, and there's also a ton of words that mean something similar to nonsense, like bunkum. People say "That's bunkum!" when something is false, crazy, or unfair. Getting fired for no reason is bunkum. A string of clichés from a politician is bunkum. An obvious lie is bunkum. This word especially applies to exaggerations and falsehoods. Someone who spins tall tales likes to talk bunkum, which is also called bunk.
Vocabulary lists containing bunkum
The BFG
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Fever 1793
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The Unmapped Sea
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"To suggest that we can't have effective scrutiny because of the size of the Senedd is a load of bunkum - look at the organ donation law, the smoking ban and plastic bags."
From BBC • Jan. 30, 2024
But in reality, some of what we think we know is bunkum and myth, quite often spread by the artist himself, who was famous for hiding behind a smoke screen of partial-truths and outright fibs.
From New York Times • Nov. 1, 2018
Almost no records survived, though, so the history of the Pony Express is littered with impostors, inaccuracies, and plain bunkum.
From National Geographic • Jun. 23, 2018
But this mercantilist logic has been known to be bunkum for centuries.
From Economist • Mar. 8, 2018
Don’t thet sky-e, now, take the gildin’ off yer bunkum phi-loserphy an’ tall talkin’ ’bout this system an’ thet—ain’t thet sight above worth more’n a bushel o’ words, I reckon, hey?”
From Fritz and Eric The Brother Crusoes by Hutcheson, John C. (John Conroy)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
