half-jokingly

• a word derived from half-joking.
  half-joking

  adjective

  said, done, or acting in a seemingly jokey manner, but with some serious intent
• a word derived from joke.
  joke

  noun

  something said or done to provoke laughter or cause amusement, as a witticism, a short and amusing anecdote, or a prankish act.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

half-jokingly

So when, class after class, I saw this picture of vitality sipping a Sparkling Kiwi Guava Celsius, I thought, only half-jokingly, “Maybe that will turn me into that.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

I said half-jokingly after the second Test in Brisbane that England would play well now in Adelaide because they had had their two warm-ups.

From BBC ● Dec. 21, 2025

Only a month ago, President McInnis and Dean Pericles Lewis speculated, half-jokingly during parents weekend, that Yale has been spared only because “Y” came at the end of the alphabet.

From Salon ● Nov. 8, 2025

So Harper and Jack started what they half-jokingly called the “Civil Disobedience Club.”

From Slate ● Oct. 30, 2025

The answer recalled the earliest advice half-jokingly offered by a newspaper editor when the residency question had first appeared on the national agenda: Give the decision to George Washington.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

More Suggestions

• half-hoping
• half-holiday
• half-long
• half-convinced
• chokingly
• half-binding
• half-blind
• half-bottle
• half-bound