as in hokey
tiresomely obvious and unsophisticated
the show's shamelessly cornball jokes appealed to small-town America
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
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
Brande Victorian,
The Hollywood Reporter,
9 Sep. 2024
Trolling you cornballs for rooting against us is apart of the game.
—
Jenna West,
The Athletic,
9 Aug. 2024
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
Unlike the lighthearted cornball of the Banks family that Carlton was in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the reboot reimagines the middle child with deeper issues than simply trying to be cool.
—
Brande Victorian,
The Hollywood Reporter,
9 Sep. 2024
Trolling you cornballs for rooting against us is apart of the game.
—
Jenna West,
The Athletic,
9 Aug. 2024
See All Example Sentences for cornball
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cornball
Adjective
-
Like the hokey gag of Lineker pretending to introduce the show before Woods interrupted.
-
The session included newer compositions from Rollins, Davis, and Theolonious Monk alongside the theoretically hokey showtunes that Davis would help turn into standards.
Noun
-
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.
-
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
-
It’s also loved for its rustic appearance, crisp crust, airy interior and potential nutritional benefits, including being easier to digest than many other types of bread.
-
Even better, every color of this space-saving design is on sale right now—from rustic walnut and classic black to neutral navy blue.
Noun
-
The only leaders more buffoonish and lethal than the fairground hucksters elected in our failing democracies are the omnipotent clowns of tyranny.
-
Up until his first day of filming Jackass, Steve-O was a clown in nightclubs, cruise ships and at a flea-market circus.
Adjective
-
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.
-
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
-
All those unsuspecting rubes with no idea what’s about to hit them.
-
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
-
Growing up in Brookville, OH, my family would call this kid corn-fed.
-
The Lycra Company has corn-fed stretch.
Noun
-
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.
-
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 3 Jul. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
