Meaning & use
corny
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Meaning
adjectivecomparableinformal
Too obviously sentimental, old-fashioned, or unoriginal, so it seems predictable and mildly embarrassing.
Grammar: Can stand before a noun or after linking verbs: a corny joke, the movie sounded corny.
Patterns
- corny joke/line
- corny love song
- sound/seem corny
- corny sense of humor
The ending was sweet but a little corny.
He opened with a corny joke about the weather.
I know it sounds corny, but I still keep my first ticket stub.
Word forms
| comparative | cornier |
|---|---|
| superlative | corniest |
Common combinations
- corny joke
- The presenter began with a corny joke that made half the room groan.
- corny love song
- The radio played a corny love song from the nineties.
- sound corny
- It may sound corny, but saying thank you changed the meeting.
- corny dialogue
- Critics said the film’s corny dialogue made the romance hard to believe.
Synonyms and how they differ
- cheesy
- Very close informal word; it stresses cheap or exaggerated sentiment and is often harsher than corny.
- trite
- More formal; emphasizes an idea used so often that it no longer feels fresh.
- hackneyed
- Formal and disapproving; describes phrases or plots made dull by constant repetition.
- schmaltzy
- Informal; specifically over-sentimental, especially in music, film, or romance.
Opposites
Word family
- corniness noun
- The quality of being sentimental, predictable, or old-fashioned.
Commonly confused: corny or horny?
corny vs horny
Spelled with h-, horny means sexually aroused or made of horn; corny means embarrassingly unoriginal or sentimental.
Practice
Which word best fits the blank? “The reunion speech was so ___ that people smiled and rolled their eyes.”
Choose one answer.
Smiling and eye-rolling fit a sentimental, predictable speech, so corny works. Decisive describes firm decisions; paucity is formal scarcity; stable does not fit reaction.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “corny”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.