Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Excessive or flashy ornamentation.
- n. A fuss over a trifling matter.
Wiktionary
- n. Overly excessive or flashy ornamentation or decoration.
- n. A fuss over something of little importance.
Etymologies
- Probably from Spanish fanfarrón, boaster; see fanfaronade, and from French frou-frou, rustling (of imitative origin). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“A related foofaraw is that there are more important things to spend money on than the arts.”
“That’s what this whole foofaraw is really about, isn’t it?”
“The foofaraw is a bit like the noise created by dimestore prophets as they made their forecasts about the new millennium.”
“I've been watching all the Jackson foofaraw out of the corner of my eye with mild alarm.”
“My beater is a Win. 67, given to me by a brother-in-law in 1952, no frills or foofaraw, or scope, just a very dependable single shot .22 that I have killed hundreds of squirrels and rabbits with, and wouldn't trade it for a boat load of tricked-out 10/22s.”
“There seems to be a foofaraw boiling over Superman and his recent decision in Wednesday's Action Comics #900 to renounce his American citizenship.”
The Huffington Post: Bryan Young: Superman Renounces His American Citizenship
“Still, interesting as the nature of the island's electromagnetic vortex, the Smoke Monster's identity, the aims of the Dharma Initiative, the meaning of the Numbers and all the rest of the intellectual foofaraw are, not to mention the neo-psychedelic trippiness of the show, what keeps me watching is the fate of the characters.”
“This idiotic foofaraw could be a distraction only if the GOP rank-and-file actually cared more about the size of government than the cultural politics of American identity," he replies.”
The Washington Post: Why are Republicans turning an easy win into a complicated one?
“(The Wall Street Journal site, which, it should be noted, has never given away its content for free, has more than a half-dozen lines of foofaraw before a reader is granted a story headline.)”
The Wall Street Journal: What Newspapers Can Learn From Craigslist
“I took advantage of my powerful new perch and published all my letters to the editor that NEWSWEEK had rejected, provided my Conventional Wisdom, took a red pencil to Meacham's editorial foofaraw and took the bias out of the columnist bios.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘foofaraw’.
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set phasers to...
you name the setting
I've tuned mine to be gentler and kinder
following suit is not mandatory but would be appreciatedcoddle, confuse, flummox, tap, furrow, instigate, invigorate, punnify, logical, must... act... be..., bowdlerise, laughing gas and 435 more...
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Of Imitative Origin
Words formed in imitation of the sound of the things they signify.
bawl, biff, blizzard, blob, blooper, bob, boff, bomb, bonkers, boo, borborygmus, brouhaha and 148 more...
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Silly-sounding words
Serious words that sound silly when you say them
philosophunculist, argy-bargy, Labradoodle, shittah, shittim, floccinaucinihili..., succedaneum, honorificabilitud..., fag-ma-fuff, buffarilla, yazzihamper, mammothrept and 140 more...
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250 Further Spelling Words
Another compilation of spelling words suitable for intermediate to advanced spellers.
venturi, aesir, affenpinscher, rottweiler, amanuensis, balletomane, hansard, sangfroid, yukata, capriccio, cuisse, heriot and 237 more...
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Nincompoopery
Words that clatter and tumble
nincompoop, pettyfoggery, gaberlunzie, cattywampus, weisenheimer, katzenjammer, hecklephone, loblolly, carriwitchet, flibbertyjibbet, hornswoggle, thimblerigger and 161 more...
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Words with two Os in them
theriomorphic, zoo, oberon, pool, tool, fool, cool, school, occlusion, operation, opioid, solenoid and 24 more...
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Usable
heathery, delude, pander, revolute, affinity, perturb, dissuade, procure, salacious, counterbalance, listless, auspicate and 8 more...
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Best words ever
The most awesome words.
abacot, aristology, autohagiography, backronym, bafflegab, bodacious, boustrophedonic, brobdingnagian, bromopnea, cachinnatory, dactylonomy, eagre and 26 more...
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TEN DOLLAR WORDS
brouhaha, foofaraw, ruckus, slumgullion, snollygoster, slangwhanger, slugabed, hodgepodge, rapscallion, muckamuck, hornswoggle, sockdolager and 5 more...
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Words That Mean Things
I found most of these words in books! That means they MUST be good.
flinders, periplus, palaver, midden, cadge, legerdemain, flense, lapidary, geas, bailey, susurration, satoris and 128 more...
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SoSheShall's list
slurp, coeur, slurple, glop, perp, fluarxx, ropechno, herrherr, burrduhherrherr, sloppy, cheezie balls, eccentric and 634 more...
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kringlan's Words
fecund, riposte, nebbish, nonpareil, deign, eschew, imbroglio, spelunking, fop, foofaraw, tundra, talon and 128 more...
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thekatespanos's list
pomposity, gaggle, scintilla, lemming, bilk, vanquish, conflate, plenary, verisimilitude, perspicacious, rattletrap, obdurate and 325 more...
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ktrey's wordlist
Words that I like.
Many may be lexicographically impotent due to a lack of citations and definition. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify this eventually.velleity, dispositive, bloviate, bibulous, fungible, concupiscence, avuncular, carnaptious, thrawn, hypocoristic, diegesis, lagniappe and 928 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, F
felony, frolic, fend, fuselage, farthingale, freewheeling, frigorific, flummery, fancypants, felsitic, flagstone, flageolet and 295 more...
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summer words 2009
how many words can I make mine this summer?
largess, hoyden, catholic, fornicatress, quean, slattern, bildungsroman, sybaritic, descresent, nodus, frittle, callipygian and 529 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for foofaraw.

factoryjoe Now here’s the funny thing, something that I believed back during the foofaraw over the Boston edition of Macworld Expo, and something that I still believe: Macworld Expo as an idea would be better off without Apple.
Jason Snell Dec 17, 2008
chained_bear This has to be one of the best words ever invented. And it doesn't even matter if it has a meaning. Feb 1, 2007
kaichi Definition: (noun) 1. Excessive or flashy ornamentation or decoration.
2. A fuss over a matter of little importance. Jan 19, 2007