hokey
Americanadjective
-
overly sentimental; mawkish.
Two glasses of wine and he gets unbearably hokey; it's hard to believe he's a highly paid executive!
-
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
adjective
-
corny; sentimental
-
contrived; phoney
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of hokey
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.
Vocabulary lists containing hokey
"Curtis Aikens and the American Dream" and "Go For It!"
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The Bean Trees
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Firekeeper's Daughter
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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.
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
Government cuts could also contribute to such a reading, but private sector sentiment has taken a hit too, especially by the hokey cokey over tariffs.
From BBC • Mar. 11, 2025
Some people, it turns out, approach a hokey seasonal activity as they would an Olympic race: Speed is the goal.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 15, 2024
For those outside the athletic community, it may seem hokey and illusory.
From Salon • Aug. 6, 2024
My socks balled up on the hardwood floor made a greater statement than any of their hokey claptrap with the carefully matted frames and big curly signatures in the lower left-hand corners.
From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
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.
