hokey

American  

[hoh-kee] / ˈhoʊ ki /

adjective

hokier, hokiest

1. overly sentimental; mawkish.

   Two glasses of wine and he gets unbearably hokey; it's hard to believe he's a highly paid executive!

   Synonyms:

   mushy, goopy, cloying, melodramatic, maudlin, corny

2. obviously contrived, especially to win popular appeal or support; phony.

   The hokey stories of his impoverished childhood always surface at election time.

   Synonyms:

   spurious, sham, counterfeit, artificial, false, fake

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hokey British  

/ ˈhəʊkɪ /

adjective

1. corny; sentimental

2. contrived; phoney

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Other Word Forms

• hokeyness noun
• hokiness noun

Etymology

Origin of hokey

First recorded in 1945–50; hok(um) + -y ¹

Explanation

Something that's hokey is silly and sentimental — you could also call it "sappy" or "mawkish." A hokey speech is more likely to make people roll their eyes and squirm than to make them cry. You can buy your friend a hokey birthday card as a joke, or read her a hokey poem to make her laugh. There's a hint of insincerity when something's hokey — people can tell that the sentiments in your hokey yearbook quote aren't entirely genuine. In the mid-1800s, hokey-pokey was defined as "false, cheap material," possibly based on hocus-pocus, and usually referring to artificial flavoring in cheap ice cream. Today, the hokey-pokey is mainly known as a silly dance.

Example Sentences

It may be a hokey child’s trophy from a bygone era, like a scout’s badge or sportsmanship ribbon.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 4, 2026

By the end of the week the bond markets were more than nervous as a result of the hokey cokey over income tax.

From BBC • Nov. 14, 2025

While it might feel hokey to call Spangler a feel-good American success story, it’s about as close to one as you can get in corporate America these days.

From Salon • Oct. 19, 2024

Religious horror — which is to say, horror movies that specifically evoke religious imagery — can be hopelessly hokey, thoughtlessly appropriative, or thoughtful.

From New York Times • Jun. 20, 2024

Then Vonetta and Fern started dancing and singing: “You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around. That’s what it’s all about.”

From "One Crazy Summer" by Rita Williams-Garcia