hokum

ho·kum

H0236500 (hō′kəm)n.1. Something apparently impressive or legitimate but actually untrue or insincere; nonsense.2. A stock technique for eliciting a desired response from an audience.

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[Perhaps ho(cus-pocus) + (bun)kum.]

hokum

(ˈhəʊkəm) n1. claptrap; bunk2. (Theatre) obvious or hackneyed material of a sentimental nature in a play, film, etc[C20: probably a blend of hocus-pocus and bunkum]

ho•kum

(ˈhoʊ kəm)

n. 1. utter nonsense; bunkum. 2. elements of low comedy or stale melodrama introduced into a play or story for laughter or effect. [1915–20, Amer.; probably b. hocus -pocus and bunkum]

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

hokum - a message that seems to convey no meaningmeaninglessness, nonsense, nonsensicality, bunksubject matter, content, message, substance - what a communication that is about something is aboutabsurdity, absurdness, ridiculousness - a message whose content is at variance with reasonamphigory, nonsense verse - nonsensical writing (usually verse)balderdash, fiddle-faddle, piffle - trivial nonsensebuzzword, cant - stock phrases that have become nonsense through endless repetitioncobblers - nonsense; "I think that is a load of cobblers"crock - nonsense; foolish talk; "that's a crock"fa la, fal la - meaningless syllables in the refrain of a partsonggibber, gibberish - unintelligible talkingunintelligibility, incoherence, incoherency - nonsense that is simply incoherent and unintelligiblejabberwocky - nonsensical language (according to Lewis Carroll)mummery, flummery - meaningless ceremonies and flatteryempty talk, empty words, hot air, palaver, rhetoric - loud and confused and empty talk; "mere rhetoric"rigamarole, rigmarole - a set of confused and meaningless statementsschmegegge, shmegegge - (Yiddish) baloney; hot air; nonsensehooey, poppycock, stuff and nonsense, stuff - senseless talk; "don't give me that stuff"baloney, bilgewater, boloney, bosh, drool, humbug, tommyrot, tosh, twaddle, taradiddle, tarradiddle - pretentious or silly talk or writing

Translations

sciocchezzastupidaggine