cartoonish

British  

/ ˌkɑːˈtuːnɪʃ /

adjective

1. like a cartoon, esp in being one-dimensional, brightly coloured, or exaggerated

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Explanation

Something cartoonish is exaggerated and overly simplified, like your cartoonish drawing of a cat or a cartoonish movie villain. This adjective can mean "like a cartoon," as in the simple, unrealistic illustrations in a kid's book. It also describes things that are over-the-top and a bit silly: "Their cartoonish makeup looked fine onstage, but it's too much up close!" If the bad guy in a film grins evilly and twirls his mustache, most viewers will find him a little cartoonish. The word comes from cartoon, originally "a drawing on strong paper," from a root meaning "heavy paper."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cartoonish

In the joke that inspires the special’s title, she measures an Instagram comment’s subzero value in a wide scope, lampooning the communal yet cartoonish nature of our endless scroll.

From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2026

"They're travelling at such pace that actually the riders' hair is blown back in quite an expressive cartoonish way, to show how fast they're moving".

From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026

Other than one queasy homage to “Deliverance,” the film’s handling of the showdown between this drab married couple and the cartoonish criminals is rarely gripping.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2026

And the cartoonish portrayal of combat using childlike blocky figures helps to sanitize gritty images of war, helping it to get past social media filters—and pushing it far beyond Iran’s borders.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 18, 2026

It looks like a bone, a cartoonish bone, from the animated shows Autumn sometimes watches.

From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer

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