Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Something apparently impressive or legitimate but actually untrue or insincere; nonsense.
- n. A stock technique for eliciting a desired response from an audience.
Wiktionary
- n. Meaningless nonsense with an outward appearance of being impressive and legitimate.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a message that seems to convey no meaning
Etymologies
- Blend of hocus-pocus and bunkum (Wiktionary)
- Perhaps ho(cus-pocus) + (bun)kum. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“He fought a long battle against what he called hokum, ideas with no basis, which gain spurious credibility by repetition (in the way that so many celebrities are celebrities for no other reason than that they are regarded as such by the media and society pop pundits).”
“However this sort of hokum is not proscribed within the class CBlockbuster, is in fact a widely accepted strategy for achieving resolution.”
“What’s more, you’re “love it or leave it” hokum is the height of anti-American rhetorical irony.”
“So the integrity of the Commission, the veracity of all the testimony it heard, and the legitimacy of its recommendations were, in fact, widely dismissed as hokum because it was clear to "everyone who could read the facts" (or hokum, which is it?) that the whole thing was Jamie Gorelick's fault?”
In Letter, Albright And Berger Demand Kean Get ABC To Kill Film
“It is extremely high-grade hokum, which is to say it offers several different and combustible varieties.”
“It is perceived as "hokum" because on one hand Edwards denounced 527's along with other special interest groups (as detailed above) but on the other refused to request that one operating on his behalf cease their advertising.”
Krugman Hits Obama Yet Again -- This Time On Battle With Edwards Over 527s
“As far as having two thirds seats being "hokum" that is not something you are in any position to declare until AFTER the election.”
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
“In this case, moving the funny-page content to a page formerly devoted to the news just might notch up the credulity paid to what would normally be considered standard WSH editorial right wing "hokum," to borrow a word from Li'l Abner's mammy, Pansy.”
Printing: Rove's Obama Hit-Job Re-Run Oozes Out of Murdoch's Wall Street Journal Op-Ed Section
“The novel has an ending I wish I never read, not because it is "hokum," as one critic wrote, but because it bothers me so intensely.”
“This song was the only example of a southern medicine show "hokum" song that Robert recorded;”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hokum’.
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This is not a list
you know that thing where the Eskimos have 50 words for snow?
little white lie, big lie, the Big Lie, economical with t..., muddy the waters, fabrication, deception, lies, damned lies..., façade, slander, omission, web of lies and 159 more...
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Vaudeville
The show must go on . . . .
vaudeville, dumb act, Polite Vaudeville, hoofer, flop, gag, cakewalk, top banana, second banana, Orpheum Circuit, play the Palace, The Palace and 55 more...
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In provocation
When exasperated, vexed or distressed.
bunkum, pananxiety, hokum, odor of sanctity, facade of strength, bumpkin, sardonic, Philistine, Vandal, dilettante, acerbic, acrid and 11 more...
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Lying, cheating, and stealing
subterfuge, chicanery, skulduggery, pilfer, purloin, bamboozle, bilk, gyp, hoodwink, swindle, hoax, dupe and 28 more...
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Nonsense
Words that mean (more or less) 'nonsense'
moonshine, tommyrot, rigmarole, hogwash, piffle, hokum, horsefeathers, codswallop, folderol, blatherskite, humbug, gammon and 1 more...
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+o +u
O before U.
noctilucent, noctilucin, noctilucous, noctua, noctuid, globular, glout, gomuti, gossypium, goura, gourami, goulash and 25 more...
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Favorites
disparage, partisan, cupidity, hokum, tussle, odious, dastardly, overture, plane, chronic, peering, peer and 328 more...
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marginalia
exuberance, potsherds, earthbound, marcher, märchen, pastiche, transliterated, crocodile, oxbridge, jejune, publican, antithesis and 143 more...
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known words
words wot i already knew
antisyzygy, calenture, shill, saudade, sehnsucht, squonk, steganographic, anomie, wiggy, grok, hermeneutics, agrise and 206 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
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nominative case collection
wine stopper, pyre, roster, hamper, moleskin, elastic, pinnacle, facsimile, nook, plonk, contortionist, dismay and 342 more...
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FTL
Words listed first by me that don't belong in any other list.
licit, precis, mnemosyne, badinage, mariposa, lepidoptera, coruscation, poignant, meme, oxymoron, xenophobia, asterism and 128 more...
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Manji's Random Wordlist
The title says it all
velour, vivacity, subterfuge, sable, divination, gentry, vindication, compendium, pistons, metamorphosis, methodology, polyphony and 91 more...
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ADW2
nudnik, temper, intercalate, cleave, scowl, chapfallen, malapropos, disport, annals, paean, paradisiacal, whet and 362 more...
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Loaded Dice
Off the straight and narrow; less than straight arrow.
chicanery, sophistry, pilfer, rook, diddle, fleece, grift, poach, rustle, pinch, abscond, steal and 140 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for hokum.
bilby Ufff, WeirdNet (2) strikes again. Sep 13, 2008
missanthropist n. Flattery, insincerity; nonsense, bunk, blah.
Any stage devise used purely to please the audience, any proven song, joke, or line sure to elicit the desired response. Proven but hackneyed or trite material used in the theatre.
Cheap, sugary candy, shoddy souvenirs, any useless item such as is sold at carnival booths.
Jul 16, 2008