campy
Americanadjective
adjective
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effeminate; affected in mannerisms, dress, etc
-
relating to or considered characteristic of homosexuals
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consciously artificial, exaggerated, vulgar, or mannered; self-parodying, esp when in dubious taste
Other Word Forms
- campily adverb
- campiness noun
Etymology
Origin of campy
Explanation
Use the adjective campy to describe something that has a ridiculous, wacky appeal. Some movies are so exaggeratedly bad that they've got a campy kind of charm. Anything you describe as "so bad it's good" is probably campy. Many fans of over-the-top, campy films like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, for example, find them wonderfully funny and strange. The early 20th-century slang meaning of camp was simply "tasteless," with campy emerging in the late 1950s. The root is uncertain, but it may be the French se camper, "to put oneself in a bold, provocative pose."
Vocabulary lists containing campy
The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky
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This Book Won't Burn
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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.
Pair that winning team with Williams’ tremendously campy performance as a fur-trimmed-leopard-print-wearing, her-way-or-the-highway, Capital-D diva, and you’ve got the ultimate reason why “A Christmas Carol” and Ebenezer Scrooge have maintained their relevance for 182 years.
From Salon • Dec. 24, 2025
I didn’t think the adulterous villain from the OG “Vanderpump Rules” was long for Alan Cumming’s campy Scottish castle because everyone remembers “Scandoval” and what he did to Ariana Madix, but I was wrong.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 23, 2025
When Mr. Cameron’s Na’vi growl and bare their teeth at one another, they come across as campy and catty critters—“Real Housewives of Pandora.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 17, 2025
Life Day has its roots in the beloved but campy and culturally questionable “Star Wars Holiday Special” as an event that originated on the Wookie home planet of Kashyyyk.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 19, 2025
It did not help that to pass the time Joe plucked incessantly at a ukulele, singing and whistling the campy tunes that he and his father enjoyed so much.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
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.
