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Synonyms

kooky

American  
[koo-kee] / ˈku ki /
Or kookie

adjective

Slang.
kookier, kookiest
  1. of, like, or pertaining to a kook; eccentric, strange, or foolish.


kooky British  
/ ˈkuːkɪ /

adjective

  1. informal crazy, eccentric, or foolish

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of kooky

First recorded in 1955–60; kook + -y 1

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.

See Examples For:

Many came to Interested in Olive Oil’s defense, calling the reference refreshingly kooky; others wondered why they hadn’t included a touch more detail.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026

And Sam's kooky persona is either going to win people's hearts or crash out spectacularly.

From BBC ● May 15, 2026

Her kooky chipmunk moxie lets her get through any script relatively unscathed, including this one.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2026

At the time it was just another one of his kooky ideas that went nowhere, largely because the people around him were able to give him another shiny object to chase.

From Salon ● Jan. 18, 2026

You might say, Okay, but when has a working-class Indian-American girl with a kooky dadi and ripped jeans ever become a famous filmmaker?

From "From Twinkle, with Love" by Sandhya Menon

Fittingly, the majority of my favorites came from Cannes’ kookier programming sections, Directors’ Fortnight and Un Certain Regard — and I suspect many of yours did, too, oui?

From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2026

Second, Ms. Behn’s affordability message seems to be trumping the effect of her kookier statements because she is filling a vacuum left by the White House, which remains quiet on an agenda to lower costs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 1, 2025

That irks the panelists, too, evidenced in a shot of Wilson rolling his eyes at one of Coulter’s kookier mendacities.

From Salon ● Oct. 22, 2025

Once she retired—she died in 2017—the troupe couldn’t perform pieces on that scale, but it could always come up with a few people to do the kookier early work.

From The New Yorker ● Jun. 24, 2019

The kookier, PG-rated Keith is the one we tend to see on SNY’s @GaryKeithRon Instagram feed.

From New York Times ● Sep. 25, 2018

Greene has hit the limit of what she can do while being known as the kookiest member of Congress.

From Salon ● Jan. 10, 2023

Cathedral , “Quarterback dads are the kookiest, craziest type of dads in any sport. But Craig is just not that guy.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 2022

Esquivel Jingle Bells The kookiest, weirdest version I’ve ever heard, for a space-age bachelor pad, as they say in the lyrics.

From The Guardian ● Dec. 23, 2018

His character’s self-sacrificial willingness to grit his teeth through the kookiest high jinks that suburbia has to offer makes his stodgy values at least those of a consistently decent guy.

From Slate ● Apr. 4, 2018

One of the quirkiest, kookiest clans in popular culture is headed to Broadway for the holiday season: not the Addams family, which is already firmly entrenched in the theater district, but the Osmond family.

From New York Times ● Oct. 19, 2010

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