How to Use honky-tonk in a Sentence

honky-tonk

1 of 2 noun
  • The couple started dating in 2021 after being set up on a blind date and ended up at a honky-tonk.
    — Alejandra Gularte, Vulture, 14 May 2026
  • Watch top country acts and pro bull riders perform at Billy Bob's, the world's largest honky-tonk spanning more than three acres.
    — Regan Stephens, Travel + Leisure, 24 Apr. 2026
  • Billy Bob’s Texas Sprawled over three full acres, Billy Bob’s is the world’s largest honky-tonk.
    — Regan Stephens, Travel + Leisure, 24 Apr. 2026
  • During these months, the greenery is at its peak, live music pours out of honky-tonks, and there are plenty of places to sit outside on a patio with a great meal and a tasty glass of Tennessee whiskey.
    — Abby Price, Travel + Leisure, 23 May 2026
  • That realization led him to a collection of honky-tonk stompers, highway ballads and intimate character studies.
    — Spin Staff, SPIN, 23 June 2026
  • The video was filmed at Fort Worth Stockyards staple Billy Bob’s Texas last fall, according to a spokesperson for the world’s largest honky-tonk.
    — Brayden Garcia, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 30 Apr. 2026
  • Its melody unfolds in legato phrases that drift across the bar line; its harmonic language leans toward George Gershwin’s chromaticism more than Hank Williams’s honky-tonk.
    — New York Times, 28 Apr. 2026
  • Throughout their first five albums, the band has spun a web, not unlike the orb weavers of their native Virginia, that marries country, rock, honky-tonk grit and Appalachian soul with rowdy barroom energy.
    — Chris Barilla, PEOPLE, 15 May 2026
  • Located in the heart of the Stockyards, Hotel Drover, an Autograph Collection hotel, is in prime position for soaking up the city’s Old West spirit in the form of cattle drives, honky-tonks, and historic shops peddling all manner of Western gear.
    — Regan Stephens, Travel + Leisure, 24 Apr. 2026
  • On Sunday, the lineup includes Tatiana Hargreaves, a rising-star in the bluegrass fiddling scene, with her band and special guest Michael Daves; the honky-tonk duo Caleb Lauder and Reeb Wllms with their band the Cali Cutups; and Pleasanton native and all-world strings player Tony Furtado.
    — Randy McMullen, Mercury News, 30 Apr. 2026
  • While country fans crossed the pedestrian bridge to see Cody Johnson and Keith Urban headline Nissan Stadium, Cage the Elephant, Dexter and the Moonrocks, Edgehill, Mod Sun, and New Translations were playing over three stages at Jon Bon Jovi’s Nashville honky-tonk, JBJ’s.
    — Joseph Hudak, Rolling Stone, 8 June 2026

honky-tonk

2 of 2 adjective
  • Come for the home brew, stay for the honky-tonk.
    — Elise Taylor, Vanity Fair, 19 Jan. 2026
  • My next record is gonna be the honky-tonk-iest one ever!
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 9 Aug. 2025
  • Yeah Yeahs)—was now kitted out as a honky-tonk dive.
    — Helen Shaw, New Yorker, 22 Aug. 2025
  • There are also two honky-tonk hopefuls from Nashville.
    — Bethy Squires, Vulture, 23 Feb. 2026
  • Fort Worth knows a thing or two about live music, Western heritage and a good honky-tonk.
    — Lauren Schuster, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 Apr. 2026
  • Spend an evening in East Austin to two-step at a honky-tonk or toast with friends over award-winning cocktails.
    — Amanda Ogle, Travel + Leisure, 23 Aug. 2025
  • Lower Broadway alone can fill an entire evening, with live music spilling out of every honky-tonk.
    — Lauren Schuster, Miami Herald, 10 Mar. 2026
  • That good time starts on the ground floor honky-tonk, which leads up to the restaurant, offering dishes like scallops with artichoke fondue.
    — Leena Tailor, HollywoodReporter, 3 Oct. 2025
  • As evening falls, the crowd drifts downtown to the Blue Moon Saloon, a honky-tonk that resembles a back porch more than a concert venue.
    — Phil Thomas, Travel + Leisure, 1 Feb. 2026
  • The four-story, pre-Civil War structure is transformed into a joint record shop, honky-tonk, music venue and private speakeasy.
    — Hadley Hitson, Nashville Tennessean, 10 Nov. 2025
  • The four-story, pre-Civil War structure was transformed into a joint record shop, honky-tonk, music venue and private speakeasy.
    — Laura L. Davis, Nashville Tennessean, 10 Nov. 2025
  • In general, that style's foundation is in an unapologetic honky-tonk-meets-Southern rock style that feels bred from a hard-living lifestyle.
    — Marcus K. Dowling, The Tennessean, 21 Aug. 2025
  • When work dried up in Paris, Riley returned to San Francisco and to his old job playing honky-tonk piano in a saloon.
    — William Robin, New Yorker, 26 Aug. 2025
  • Broadway and Downtown deliver the classic honky-tonk energy — think a live-music-heavy, country version of a nonstop party strip.
    — Lauren Schuster, Miami Herald, 8 Apr. 2026
  • The ad shows the pair two-stepping in cowboy boots at a Billy Bob’s–style honky-tonk before cutting to them in business attire, swing dancing in the Senate.
    — Marley Malenfant, Austin American Statesman, 16 Jan. 2026
  • British pubs and a Korean honky-tonk Fifty years ago, a fortune teller told Mama Kim to open a country and western bar in Seoul.
    — Maureen O'Hare, CNN Money, 25 Oct. 2025
  • Nearby Ryman is Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, a legendary honky-tonk bar in downtown Nashville.
    — Ashley J. Dimella, FOXNews.com, 1 Jan. 2026
  • Previously, Walker released a trilogy of albums chronicling the lives of patrons in a fictional honky-tonk.
    — Jessica Nicholson, Billboard, 25 Aug. 2025
  • Billy Bob’s Texas (which bills itself as the world’s largest honky-tonk) spans 100,000 square feet and regularly hosts live performances.
    — Taylor Haught, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 20 Mar. 2026
  • Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives opened the show with a blend of rockabilly, honky-tonk and bluegrass.
    — Ed Masley, AZCentral.com, 9 Aug. 2025
  • Nancy had been distraught when the honky-tonk crooner died, and cherished what seemed to be a genuine friendship with West in the immediate months after Jones’ death that quickly blossomed into romance.
    — Cheyenne Roundtree, Rolling Stone, 28 Aug. 2025
  • Some main streets maintain a quieter, almost nostalgic presence, while others are more lively (take a walk down Nashville’s Lower Broadway at night for a real dose of honky-tonk revelry).
    — Lydia Mansel, Southern Living, 16 Jan. 2026
  • The first floor features a honky-tonk with two bars and two stages (including the original stage of Ernest Tubb’s Midnite Jamboree), as well as photos of Tubb with his fellow country stars.
    — Jessica Nicholson, Billboard, 12 Nov. 2025
  • Gilley, a chart-topping country singer and nightclub owner, became synonymous with honky-tonk hits and Gilley’s Club, the Texas nightspot that helped spark the 1980s’ urban cowboy craze.
    — Bob Mehr, Memphis Commercial Appeal, 20 Jan. 2026
  • The owners of legendary honky-tonk Robert's Western World will soon be stewards of another property on downtown Nashville's famous Broadway strip.
    — Molly Davis, The Tennessean, 15 July 2023
  • Meet Grand Ole Opry, the city’s iconic honky-tonk where cowboy boots meet K-culture — all thanks to Mama Kim and a fateful fortune teller encounter 50 years ago.
    — Sarah Hutter, CNN Money, 22 Oct. 2025
  • In April 2024, Wallen was arrested after throwing a chair off the sixth-story roof of Eric Church’s new bar and honky-tonk, Chief’s, in downtown Nashville.
    — Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 1 Oct. 2025
  • The record is heavy on Ketchum’s baritone vocals and electric honky-tonk sound that helped the Train Robbers gain a fanbase in the Pacific Northwest since their 2017 debut, Gravel.
    — Josh Crutchmer, Rolling Stone, 30 Jan. 2026
  • Longtime fans of Billy Bob’s Texas may remember that its founder, Billy Bob Barnett, erected a 12-foot bronze statue of his good friend Binion outside the honky-tonk’s entrance.
    — Brayden Garcia, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 7 Feb. 2026
  • The group dined Friday at The Twelve Thirty Club, a honky-tonk and supper club co-owned by Justin Timberlake, according to social media posts by Swift fans in Nashville.
    — Lisa Gutierrez, Kansas City Star, 2 Sep. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'honky-tonk.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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