Standard Lemma guide

corny

adj · 10 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈkɔːni/
  • General-American: /ˈkɔɹni/
  • Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɔː(ɹ)ni
  • CMU ARPABET: K AO1 R N IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Boring and unoriginal.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • The duct tape and wire was a pretty corny solution.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: humdrum, tedious, uninteresting, banal, basic, beat, blah, commonplace, bland, boring, cold, colourless, corny, drab, stuffy, dreich, drowsy, dull, dull as dishwater, flat, heavy going, ho-hum, insipid, lackluster, lame, languid, lifeless, longsome, monotonous, mundane, no fun at parties, plain, plodding, prosaic, prosy, pedantic, pedestrian, static, straightforward, snoozeworthy, soporific, uncool, wan, weaksauce, wooden, stodgy, vapid, vanilla

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Hackneyed or excessively sentimental.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • The movie was okay, but the love scene was really corny.
  • He sent a bouquet of twelve red roses and a card: "Roses are red, Violets are blue, Sugar is sweet, So are you." How corny is that?

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: banal, clichéd, kitschy, tacky, cheesy, schmaltzy, bathetic, bromidic, stock, commonplace, corny, dog-eared, hackneyed, hoary, overdone, overused, overworked, pat, played out, shopworn, stale, threadbare, timeworn, tired, trite, warmed-over, well-worn, bedizened, blatant, blingish, brash, campy, catchpenny, chichi, chintzy, crass, crude, flashy, flaunting, florid, flossy, froufrou, garish, gauche, gaudy, gay, glaring, gross, gussied up, hideous, kitsch, loud, meretricious, naff, obtrusive, ostentatious, pizazzy, pretentious, ritzy, raffish, schlocky, showy, snazzy, splendiferous, tasteless, tawdry, tinselly, too much, trinkety, unbecoming, untasteful, vain, whorish, zesty, squishy, drippy, gooey, hokey, icky, maudlin, mawkish, mushy, overemotional, oversentimental, overwrought, sappy, sickly sweet, slushy, soppy, soupy, syrupy, treacly

Antonyms: none provided

3

adj

Meaning 3

Uncool, stupid, lame.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: slang

Qualifier: African-American Vernacular

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: lousy, peak, wack, cringe, cheugy, abysmal, atrocious, awful, bad, chronic, coarse, corny, crap, crapalicious, crappy, crummy, deityforsaken, dire, disagreeable, dismal, dogshit, dreadful, fifth-rate, foul, fourth-rate, godawful, hellish, hideous, hopeless, horrendous, horrid, horrible, horrific, inadequate, incompetent, inelegant, intolerable, inferior, lackluster, loathsome, miserable, naff, negative, odious, ordinary, pathetic, piss-poor, rotten, rubbish, shitawful, shitty, sixth-rate, sloppy, subpar, terrible, unfavorable

Antonyms: none provided

4

adj

Meaning 4

Containing corn.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: rare

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

adj

Meaning 5

Producing corn or grain; furnished with grains of corn.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

adj

Meaning 6

Tipsy; drunk.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, obsolete, slang

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: drunkish, squiffy, Adrian Quist, adrip, aled up, all mops and brooms, arseholed, a sheet in the wind, a sheet in the wind's eye, bedrunken, befuddled, beliquored, besotted, besotten, bevvied, bibacious, bibulous, binned, bingoed, bladdered, blasted, blewed, blind, blind drunk, blitzed, blocked, blootered, blottoed, blue, bollocksed, bombed, boozy, bosky, bottled, Brahms, Brahms and Liszt, budgy, bungalowed, bungfu, burlin', canned, clobbered, corned, cocked, cockeyed, crapulous, crocked, cunted, cup-shot, cup-shotten, cut, dead drunk, destroyed, disguised, drunk, drunk as a piper, drunked up, drunken, ebriated, ebriose, elephant's, elephant's trunk, elevated, faced, fap, fershnickered, flooey, floored, flush, flushed, flustered, fluted, fluthered, feeling no pain, fou, four sheets in the wind, fresh, fried, frosted, fuckered up, fuckfaced, fuddled, full, fuzzy-headed, fuzzy-minded, gassed, gattered, gee-eyed, gesuip, ginned, gished, glorious, groggified, groggy, half polluted, half cut, half lit, half seas over, hammered, have drink taken, have the sun in one's eyes, hazed, high as a Georgia pine, high as a kite, high, hog-whimpering, honkers, hooched up, hooted, hoovered, hosed, how came you so, impaired, in liquor, in one's altitudes, in one's cups, in the bag, in the drink, inebriate, inebriated, inebrious, insober, insobrietous, inter pocula, jaked, jarred, juiced, juiced up, kaylied, kettled, kisky, lamped, langered, langers, larruped, lash, lashed, lathered, legless, liquored up, liquory, lit, loaded, looped, loopy, loose, lubed, lubed up, lubricated, lushed, mabok, mad with it, maggot, maggoted, mashed, maudlin, medicated, messed up, monged, mortal, mortalled, Mozart and Liszt, muddled, muggy, mullered, munted, muzzy, MWI, nappy, newted, nimptopsical, obfuscated, obliviated, off one's box, off one's head, off one's tits, oiled, oiled up, Oliver, Oliver Twist, on the ran tan, ossified, out of it, out of one's box, out of one's face, out of one's head, out of sight, overcome, overrefreshed, overtaken, paralytic, parlatic, pickled, pie-eyed, pixilated, plastered, ploughed, plowed, polluted, potshot, potted, pounded, primed, puggled, quisby, raddled, ratfaced, razzled, ripe, ripped, rolling, rubbered, sauced, sauced up, scammered, schloshed, schnockered, screwed, scuttered, sewed up, shedded, shellacked, shicker, shickered, shitty, skunked, slammed, slarmied, slizzard, sloppy drunk, sloshed, smashed, snockered, snookered, snozzled, snuffy, soaken, sodden, soshed, sotted, sottish, souped-up, soused, sozzled, sozzly, spanceled, spannered, spiffed, splashed, spongy, sprung, squiffed, steamboats, stewed, stinking, stinko, stoated, stoned, stonkered, stotious, strut, swacked, tanked, tanked up, temulent, temulentive, three sheets in the wind, three sheets to the wind, throwed, tight as a tick, tight, tilted, tippled, tipsy, tired and emotional, toasted, top-heavy, top-heavy with drink, toping, trashed, tuned, twatfaced, twisted, wastey, wazzed, wazzocked, well-oiled, wellied, wet, whittled, withered, wobbly, woozy, worse for liquor, worse for wear, wrecked, zoned, zonked, zooted, zorched, zotzed

Antonyms: none provided

7

adj

Meaning 7

Horny (sexually aroused; experiencing sexual desire).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: euphemistic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: amorous, randy, turned on, ablaze, aroused, buckish, concupiscent, corny, desirous, drippy, DTF, excited, flustered, frisky, fuckish, gagging for it, horny, hot, hot and bothered, hot to trot, impure, in heat, lascivious, lewd, libidinous, lickerish, lustful, lusty, prurient, ravenous, ruttish, rutty, sexed up, stimulated, thirsty, toey, toey as a Roman sandal, unchaste, venereal, venereous, wanton

Antonyms: none provided

8

adj

Meaning 8

Having or pertaining to corns (a type of callus).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

9

adj

Meaning 9

Horny; strong, stiff or hard like horn; resembling horn.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

10

adjective satellite

Meaning 10

dull and tiresome but with pretensions of significance or originality

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • bromidic sermons

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: bromidic, platitudinal, platitudinous

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ǵerh2- Proto-Indo-European *-nóm Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h2-nós Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h2nóm Proto-Germanic *kurną Proto-West Germanic *korn Old English corn Middle English corn Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y Middle English corny English corny From Middle English corny, equivalent to corn (“a type of cereal or grain”) + -y. Piecewise doublet of grainy. In the "hackneyed" sense, from "corn catalogue jokes", reputedly low-quality jokes that were formerly printed in mail-order seed catalogues.

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱer- Proto-Indo-European *-h2 ? Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh2-der. Proto-Italic *kornū Latin cornū̆ Latin cornua Vulgar Latin *corna Old French cornebor. Middle English corne English corn Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y English -y English corny From corn (“a type of callus”) + -y. Piecewise doublet of horny.

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱer- Proto-Indo-European *-h2 ? Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh2-der. Proto-Italic *kornū Latin cornū̆ Latin cornua Vulgar Latin *corna Old French corne Middle French corne Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y English -y ▲ Latin cornu ▲ English -y English corny From Middle French corne + English -y, or from Latin cornu + English -y.

Across languages

Translations

67 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Czech: otřepaný — insipid or trite
  • Czech: ohraný — insipid or trite
  • Czech: nudný — insipid or trite
  • Czech: banální — insipid or trite
  • French: banal — insipid or trite
  • German: abgedroschen — insipid or trite
  • Greek: τετριμμένος (tetrimménos) — insipid or trite
  • Hungarian: sablonos — insipid or trite
  • Hungarian: elcsépelt — insipid or trite
  • Hungarian: jellegtelen — insipid or trite
  • Hungarian: fantáziátlan — insipid or trite
  • Hungarian: banális — insipid or trite
  • Indonesian: murahan — insipid or trite
  • Japanese: 寒い (samui) — insipid or trite
  • Japanese: べた (beta) — insipid or trite
  • Macedonian: ба́нален (bánalen) — insipid or trite
  • Russian: бана́льный (banálʹnyj) — insipid or trite
  • Spanish: insipido — insipid or trite
  • Thai: เฉิ่ม (chə̀m) — insipid or trite
  • Thai: เชย (chəəi) — insipid or trite
  • Thai: เปิ่น (bpə̀n) — insipid or trite
  • Thai: แป้ก (bpɛ̂k) — insipid or trite
  • Thai: ฝืด (fʉ̀ʉt) — insipid or trite
  • Thai: เสี่ยว (sìao) — insipid or trite
  • Ukrainian: бана́льний (banálʹnyj) — insipid or trite
  • Ukrainian: заяло́жений (zajalóženyj) — insipid or trite
  • Arabic: ثَقِيل الظَِلّ (ṯaqīl aẓ-ẓaill) — excessively sentimental
  • Arabic: سَخِيف (saḵīf) — excessively sentimental
  • Bulgarian: сантиментален (santimentalen) — excessively sentimental
  • Catalan: cursi — excessively sentimental
  • Chinese Mandarin: 肉麻 (ròumá) — excessively sentimental
  • Dutch: melig — excessively sentimental
  • Dutch: sentimenteel — excessively sentimental
  • Dutch: oubollig — excessively sentimental
  • Dutch: afgezaagd — excessively sentimental
  • French: dégoulinant — excessively sentimental
  • French: kitsch — excessively sentimental
  • French: sirupeux — excessively sentimental
  • French: mielleux — excessively sentimental
  • French: cucul — excessively sentimental
  • French: mièvre — excessively sentimental
  • French: gnangnan — excessively sentimental
  • German: kitschig — excessively sentimental
  • German: schmalzig — excessively sentimental
  • Greek: σαχλός (sachlós) — excessively sentimental
  • Hungarian: csöpögős — excessively sentimental
  • Hungarian: szirupos — excessively sentimental
  • Hungarian: gejl — excessively sentimental
  • Hungarian: szentimentális — excessively sentimental
  • Hungarian: érzelgős — excessively sentimental
  • Hungarian: giccses — excessively sentimental
  • Italian: sdolcinato — excessively sentimental
  • Macedonian: сентимента́лен (sentimentálen) — excessively sentimental
  • Macedonian: чувстви́телен (čuvstvítelen) — excessively sentimental
  • Norwegian: kårny — excessively sentimental
  • Portuguese: lamechas — excessively sentimental
  • Portuguese: piegas — excessively sentimental
  • Portuguese: brega — excessively sentimental
  • Russian: сентиментальный (sentimentalʹnyj) — excessively sentimental
  • Russian: слащавый (slaščavyj) — excessively sentimental
  • Spanish: cursi — excessively sentimental
  • Spanish: huachafo — excessively sentimental
  • Spanish: wacha — excessively sentimental
  • Spanish: ñoño — excessively sentimental
  • Thai: เลี่ยน (lîian) — excessively sentimental
  • Thai: เสี่ยว (sìao) — excessively sentimental
  • Ukrainian: засентимента́льний (zasentymentálʹnyj) — excessively sentimental
Real reading context

corny in complete knowledge articles