as in hokey
tiresomely obvious and unsophisticated
the show's shamelessly cornball jokes appealed to small-town America
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in hick
an awkward or simple person especially from a small town or the country
a movie about a cornball making his way through a world of cynical sophisticates
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of cornball
Television Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
26 Feb. 2026
With a wry chuckle, McCartney chalks up these cornball elements of his TV specials and other outings to the perils of being surrounded by yes people.
—
Sheri Linden,
HollywoodReporter,
25 Feb. 2026
Steve Buckley,
New York Times,
7 Feb. 2026
The Gallery, which also includes brief performance interludes, is clearly eager to avoid the cornball, lowbrow associations of its genre, like Medieval Times.
—
Gary Baum,
HollywoodReporter,
19 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for cornball
Adjective
Davis and Head make strong impressions, masking the pedestrian, sometimes cornball dialogue.
—
Television Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
26 Feb. 2026
With a wry chuckle, McCartney chalks up these cornball elements of his TV specials and other outings to the perils of being surrounded by yes people.
—
Sheri Linden,
HollywoodReporter,
25 Feb. 2026
Noun
Sure, the execution of that effort in an Olympic opening ceremony can tilt to cornball.
—
Steve Buckley,
New York Times,
7 Feb. 2026
The Gallery, which also includes brief performance interludes, is clearly eager to avoid the cornball, lowbrow associations of its genre, like Medieval Times.
—
Gary Baum,
HollywoodReporter,
19 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for cornball
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cornball
Adjective
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Like the hokey gag of Lineker pretending to introduce the show before Woods interrupted.
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The session included newer compositions from Rollins, Davis, and Theolonious Monk alongside the theoretically hokey showtunes that Davis would help turn into standards.
Noun
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When Johnson was vice president and visiting Europe, there were reports filed by these British ambassadors in several countries that basically made fun of him as a hick.
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So a bunch of hicks from Topeka were left up to our own devices of going down to Robert Hall and finding something that might be kind of cool.
Adjective
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The interior design mirrors the rustic aesthetic and is finished in drywall, with wooden trim, plus vinyl plank flooring.
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This rustic teak love seat can work in lots of spaces, like on the perimeter of your garden or outside your shed, while the modern Brighton rug is perfect for streamlining an outdoor conversation set.
Noun
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The group demonstrated near the Washington Monument and was met by a few counter protestors, one of which played clown music throughout the majority of the demonstration.
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But many did not, as the 1981 episodes tell the grim tale of a young girl named Sylvia (Barash), who is raped by a stranger wearing a horrifying clown mask.
Adjective
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Where the most hopelessly corny sayings are painstakingly stitched into the equivalent of cloth graph paper by women who believe in the sayings and give the plaques to people who do not believe in the sayings.
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Even the weddings that work overtime to prevent a kind of corniness from slipping in wind up being twice as corny in their own way.
Noun
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All those unsuspecting rubes with no idea what’s about to hit them.
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That set-up makes Cole relatively unique among prediction markets’ headliners, many of whom are suspected of exploiting insider info to dupe rubes for short-term gains.
Adjective
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Growing up in Brookville, OH, my family would call this kid corn-fed.
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The Lycra Company has corn-fed stretch.
Noun
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Duke Slater, pal of Jim Nabors’ hayseed Gomer Pyle on the ’60s sitcom of that name, died of natural causes today at UCLA Hospital in Los Angeles.
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Baby Billy’s first full-frontal scene is more a testament to Walton Goggins’s incredible hayseed bravado in the rule.
Cite this Entry
“Cornball.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cornball. Accessed 5 Jul. 2026.
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