hokum

noun

ho·​kum ˈhō-kəm 

1

: a device used (as by showmen) to evoke a desired audience response

2

: pretentious nonsense : bunkum

Synonyms

• applesauce [slang]
• balderdash
• baloney
• boloney
• beans
• bilge
• blah
• blah-blah
• blarney
• blather
• blatherskite
• blither
• bosh
• bull [slang]
• bunk
• bunkum
• buncombe
• claptrap
• codswallop [British]
• crapola [slang]
• crock
• drivel
• drool
• fiddle
• fiddle-faddle
• fiddlesticks
• flannel [British]
• flapdoodle
• folderol
• falderal
• folly
• foolishness
• fudge
• garbage
• guff
• hogwash
• hokeypokey
• hoodoo
• hooey
• horsefeathers [slang]
• humbug
• humbuggery
• jazz
• malarkey
• malarky
• moonshine
• muck
• nerts [slang]
• nonsense
• nuts
• piffle
• poppycock
• punk
• rot
• rubbish
• senselessness
• silliness
• slush
• stupidity
• taradiddle
• tarradiddle
• tommyrot
• tosh
• trash
• trumpery
• twaddle

Examples of hokum in a Sentence

Everyone knows his story is pure hokum.

His new film is yet another piece of Hollywood hokum.

Recent Examples on the Web

Trying this out is part of coffee testing's scientific method, but the insistence on 175 degrees also read like marketing hokum. —Joe Ray, WIRED, 17 Dec. 2019

But between all the hokum, Ackles and Padalecki's chemistry (both on and off screen) is what truly kept the engine running. —EW.com, 30 Sep. 2024

The result was a pageant of fight choreography, wooden romance and hypermasculine hokum that soon entered the annals of so-bad-it’s-good camp classics. —Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, 22 Mar. 2024

The movie’s ending is shameless hokum — global viewers tearfully applaud Truman’s escape into unspecified reality. —Armond White, National Review, 2 Aug. 2023

Word History

Etymology

probably blend of hocus-pocus and bunkum

First Known Use

1906, in the meaning defined at sense 1