as in jokes
a person or thing that is made fun of
his nerdy clothes made him the laughingstock of the schoolyard
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Recent Examples of laughingstocks
After going from perennial laughingstocks to legitimate contenders over the last two years, the Detroit Lions could be poised for their best season yet.
—
Robert Marvi, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 Aug. 2025
Robert Marvi, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for laughingstocks
Noun
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TikTok Reacts Viewers flooded the comments with theories and jokes.—
Lucy Notarantonio,
MSNBC Newsweek,
31 Mar. 2026
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On social media, make jokes that don’t follow logic or build toward a punch line, but rather rely on jump cuts and endless captions.—
Emily Menez,
New Yorker,
31 Mar. 2026
Noun
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McGinn sets high standards in training and during games and does not suffer fools.—
Jacob Tanswell,
New York Times,
25 Mar. 2026
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Antisemitism is the socialism of fools, right?—
Suzanne Schneider,
The New York Review of Books,
25 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Consumers have seen prices jump by a $1 at the pump over the month, while the United States, Israel and Iran enter a new phase in the ongoing war, in which oil and gas have become key targets for both sides.—
Kate Perez,
USA Today,
2 Apr. 2026
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Other targets, according to a post on X, included command centers, posts of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, air defense systems, ballistic missile sites, navy ships and submarines as well as anti-ship missiles sites, drone manufacturing and other weapon production facilities.—
NPR Staff,
NPR,
2 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Laughingstocks.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/laughingstocks. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.
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