Standard Lemma guide

honky

noun · 3 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.

  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɒŋki
  • CMU ARPABET: HH AO1 NG K IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A white (Caucasian) person.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Canada, US, derogatory, ethnic, slur

Examples

  • For quotations using this term, see Citations:honky.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: abelungu, ang moh, Angrez, balanda, béké, bule, cac, Caucasian, cornstarch crusader, cracker, cumskin, Eurangutan, European, farang, firangi, gringo, gora, gussuk, gweilo, haole, honky, hoogie, hoojah, ice monkey, ivory, joganosh, kabloona, laowai, leucoderm, mayo, mayo monkey, mayonnaise face, melanin-challenged, migaloo, mlungu, mzungu, ofay, oyinbo, paddy, Pakeha, paleface, pigskin, pinky, roundeye, saltine, snow bunny, snow roach, toubab, umlungu, vazaha, vanilla, wadjela, white, whiteboy, white bread, white devil, whiteface, white man, whitey, Whitoid, wigger, wonderbread, Yankee

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A factory hand or general unskilled worker.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: US, obsolete

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

(slang) offensive names for a White man

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: whitey, honkey, honkie

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: White, White person, Caucasian

History

Etymology

Sense of “factory hand” attested from 1946. Compare hunky, bohunk. Most likely from hunky (“Hungarian, Slav, eastern European; any white person”), an African-American vernacular shortening of Hungarian. Another possible etymon is Wolof xonq (“red, pink”), a term frequently used in African languages to describe white men. As a term of racial abuse it was popularized by the Black Panther Party starting from 1967, who sought a rebuttal to nigger.

Across languages

Translations

2 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Polish: białas — white person
  • Polish: białaska — white person