CORNBALL Synonyms: 49 Similar and Opposite Words

cornball 1 of 2

adjective

Definition of cornball

as in hokey

tiresomely obvious and unsophisticated the show's shamelessly cornball jokes appealed to small-town America

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

cornball

2 of 2

noun

ˈkȯrn-ˌbȯl

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

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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

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

The idea might seem clever, as if the artist has cannily illustrated how the lovey-dovey notion of romance and family is hokey, brain-dead, false.

— Carlos Valladares, ARTnews.com, 11 Sep. 2026
Its central plot remains conventional, and its demonology — including a hokey expansion involving the mysterious Cult of the Wise Men — routinely functions more as a set piece than as a serious mystery.

— Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 8 July 2026

Definition of hokey

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.

— Wendy Naugle, USA Today, 14 Apr. 2026
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.

— Devon Ivie, Vulture, 8 Apr. 2026

Definition of hick

Adjective

His creator, an unnamed basket-weaver (Peter Dinklage), braided him as a mate for a lonely virgin, a fisherwoman (Olivia Colman) who stomps around her rustic village smelling like sushi and tossing her head back in an Eliza Doolittle guffaw.

— Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 22 Oct. 2026
Think earthy stone surfaces, deep woods, and sleek modern headboards juxtaposed with the kind of rustic, wooly blankets that would fit nicely into Ralph Lauren’s Colorado ranch.

— Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 22 Oct. 2026

Definition of rustic

Noun

That’s not to jinx the master clown who’s currently doddering around in Argan’s shoes on Broadway.

— Sara Holdren, Vulture, 23 Oct. 2026
In several descriptions of these amateur events, including some of his own, Hemingway sounds less like a matador than a rodeo clown.

— Stephen Bates, New Yorker, 22 Oct. 2026

Definition of clown

Adjective

Even at his launch, Freddy Krueger is pretty corny, and a little too quick with a locker-room-level pun.

— Eve Batey, Vanity Fair, 16 Oct. 2026
One critical component of getting the time and place to feel right was recreating the ’70s, rather than leaning on a corny pastiche or tired visual clichés.

— William Earl, Variety, 15 Oct. 2026

Definition of corny

Noun

That’s just the nature of talking about AI these days, when even the most passionate AI champions don’t quite know what the technology might do, and the rest of us rubes are left to try to make sense of it.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 15 Oct. 2026
Dominique is in the ensemble as is a blond rube named Hunter (Kristine Froseth) who shows up at Elle’s doorstep in mall-wear denim and then upgrades to desperate, cleavage-baring sequins.

— Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 23 July 2026

Definition of rube

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.

— Greg Evans, Deadline, 12 June 2026
Baby Billy’s first full-frontal scene is more a testament to Walton Goggins’s incredible hayseed bravado in the rule.

— Scott Tobias, Vulture, 31 Mar. 2025

Definition of hayseed

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“Cornball.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cornball. Accessed 27 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of cornball

adjective

noun

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