1
: a device used (as by showmen) to evoke a desired audience response
2
: pretentious nonsense : bunkum
Synonyms
- applesauce [slang]
- balderdash
- baloney
- boloney
- beans
- bilge
- blah
- blah-blah
- blarney
- blather
- blatherskite
- blither
- bosh
- bull [slang]
- bunk
- bunkum
- buncombe
- claptrap
- codswallop [British]
- crapola [slang]
- crock
- drivel
- drool
- fiddle
- fiddle-faddle
- fiddlesticks
- flannel [British]
- flapdoodle
- folderol
- falderal
- folly
- foolishness
- fudge
- garbage
- guff
- hogwash
- hokeypokey
- hoodoo
- hooey
- horsefeathers [slang]
- humbug
- humbuggery
- jazz
- malarkey
- malarky
- moonshine
- muck
- nerts [slang]
- nonsense
- nuts
- piffle
- poppycock
- punk
- rot
- rubbish
- senselessness
- silliness
- slush
- stupidity
- taradiddle
- tarradiddle
- tommyrot
- tosh
- trash
- trumpery
- twaddle
Examples of hokum in a Sentence
Everyone knows his story is pure hokum.
His new film is yet another piece of Hollywood hokum.
Recent Examples on the Web
Trying this out is part of coffee testing's scientific method, but the insistence on 175 degrees also read like marketing hokum.
—
Joe Ray, WIRED, 17 Dec. 2019
But between all the hokum, Ackles and Padalecki's chemistry (both on and off screen) is what truly kept the engine running.
—EW.com, 30 Sep. 2024
The result was a pageant of fight choreography, wooden romance and hypermasculine hokum that soon entered the annals of so-bad-it’s-good camp classics.
—Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, 22 Mar. 2024
The movie’s ending is shameless hokum — global viewers tearfully applaud Truman’s escape into unspecified reality.
—Armond White, National Review, 2 Aug. 2023
See all Example Sentences for hokum 
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
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Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
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Joe Ray, WIRED, 17 Dec. 2019
But between all the hokum, Ackles and Padalecki's chemistry (both on and off screen) is what truly kept the engine running.
—EW.com, 30 Sep. 2024
The result was a pageant of fight choreography, wooden romance and hypermasculine hokum that soon entered the annals of so-bad-it’s-good camp classics.
—Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, 22 Mar. 2024
The movie’s ending is shameless hokum — global viewers tearfully applaud Truman’s escape into unspecified reality.
—Armond White, National Review, 2 Aug. 2023
See all Example Sentences for hokum
Dictionary Entries Near hokum
Cite this Entry
“Hokum.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hokum. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.
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