as in peasant
an awkward or simple person especially from a small town or the country
a rustic who was awed by the prices that city dwellers had to pay
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
variants
also rustical
1
as in wooden
lacking social grace and assurance
rustic yokels whose first impulse was to smirk gawkily at anyone not of their own kind
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in rural
of, relating to, associated with, or typical of open areas with few buildings or people
a rustic area that has a refreshing lack of billboards and shopping malls
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of rustic
Laura Barrero, Axios, 1 Aug. 2024
The Swag, Waynesville, North Carolina The decor here is pitch-perfect rustic: cozy without being twee.
—Juliet Izon, Travel + Leisure, 21 May 2024
Jordan Bianchi, New York Times, 19 May 2025
This version leans into a heartier, rustic texture that highlights the roasted vegetables.
—Elizabeth Fogarty, Better Homes & Gardens, 15 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for rustic
Noun
The vibe: Elevated and modern with a touch of rustic.
—Laura Barrero, Axios, 1 Aug. 2024
The Swag, Waynesville, North Carolina The decor here is pitch-perfect rustic: cozy without being twee.
—Juliet Izon, Travel + Leisure, 21 May 2024
Adjective
The rustic short track, once left for dead only to be brought back to life, hosted NASCAR’s non-points All-Star Race for a third consecutive year.
—Jordan Bianchi, New York Times, 19 May 2025
This version leans into a heartier, rustic texture that highlights the roasted vegetables.
—Elizabeth Fogarty, Better Homes & Gardens, 15 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for rustic
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rustic
Noun
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Part 2: fifteen years later, while fleeing Petrograd, Nabokov’s father is accosted on a bridge by a gray-bearded peasant, who asks for a light and proves to be Kuropatkin in disguise.—
Elif Batuman,
New Yorker,
1 June 2025
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By 1917 in Russia, housewives were marching in city streets to protest a lack of food, peasants were seizing land, and many Russians saw the czarist government as irrelevant, even treasonous.—
Margaret MacMillan,
The Atlantic,
30 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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Experts estimate that as many as 3,500 wooden carousels were built at the turn of the 20th century – and only 150 are left.—
Christopher Cann,
USA Today,
26 May 2025
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Carpenter ants: Carpenter ants chew tunnels and chambers in structural timbers, wooden fences, trellises, and outdoor furniture.—
Mary Marlowe Leverette,
Southern Living,
25 May 2025
Adjective
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Public transportation is limited, so renting a car is recommended for getting around Extremadura’s rural areas and smaller towns.—
Carlsen Jes,
Travel + Leisure,
1 June 2025
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But, whether in galleries in Johannesburg, Bulawayo, or Paris, or on the walls of huts in rural Matobo, the art form will continue, a fascinating case of a modernist art form existing outside of Western paradigms.—
Percy Zvomuya,
Artforum,
1 June 2025
Noun
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Sanders is a Catholic priest and former Augustinian provincial in California and lives in the Augustinian community in North Park.—
Gary Sanders,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
14 May 2025
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Not long after his ordination, he was named the Jesuit provincial for Argentina, which put him in charge of the order’s activities throughout the country.—
Carlos De Loera,
Los Angeles Times,
21 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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These transitions, between past and present, are sometimes clumsy but sometimes genuinely sweet, as with an old letter that near-simultaneously is dictated and written, received and read, and finally rediscovered (and only partially understood) in the 21st century.—
Jessica Kiang,
Variety,
27 May 2025
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Wildlife officials helped remove a black bear found hanging out in the kitchen of a Kentucky home after an impressive, yet clumsy break-in, photos show.—
Mitchell Willetts,
Kansas City Star,
25 May 2025
Noun
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Sorrentino may also be exorcising some conflicting feelings about his birthplace, which is portrayed as a vulgar, crude place populated by crooks and hicks and photographed like its paradise.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
7 Feb. 2025
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In first grade, when a teacher called him a hick, Ciotti threw an inkwell at her.—
D. T. Max,
The New Yorker,
23 Sep. 2024
Noun
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Going to the Ron Burgundy–Ricky Bobby idiot well one time too many, Ferrell plays Cam Brady, a lazy, cynical longtime congressman running against a local bumpkin (Galifianakis).—
Tim Grierson,
Vulture,
4 Feb. 2025
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Carter, perhaps the most decent man to ever occupy the Oval Office, was long written off as a country bumpkin, one who perhaps unsurprisingly left office as a one-term anomaly.—
Philip Elliott,
TIME,
9 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Elves, insectoids, reptilians, aliens, gods, and clowns are all common.—
Andy Greenberg,
Wired News,
22 May 2025
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Fans can also look forward to performances by the iconic Silver Spurs Quadrille, the adorable antics of kids competing in Mutton Bustin’, and plenty of laughs courtesy of the ever-entertaining rodeo clowns.—
Joe Rassel,
The Orlando Sentinel,
21 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Rustic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rustic. Accessed 6 Jun. 2025.
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