cartoonish
Britishadjective
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."
Vocabulary lists containing cartoonish
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.
This can be true even when the AI-generated imagery is glitchy, cartoonish or jokey.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 16, 2026
Lifelike meme videos have also been used to depict fictional Iranian military victories and even the strategic Strait of Hormuz reimagined as a cartoonish toll booth.
From Barron's • Apr. 2, 2026
He greets everyone he sees and a friendly assistant follows him, handing out Olympic pins of a tiny, cartoonish Snoop with his arms raised at his side, standing in front of an American flag.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 21, 2026
The phrase is cartoonish, but the ideology is deadly serious.
From Salon • Jan. 5, 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
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.
