Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Bunkum |
BunkumNoun1. A ludicrously false statement. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "bunkum" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1894. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Bunkum Claptrap. A representative at Washington being asked why he made such a flowery and angry speech, so wholly uncalled for, made answer, "I was not speaking to the House, but to Buncombe," which he represented (North Carolina). "America, too, will find that caucuses, stumporatory, and speeches to Buncombe will not carry men to the immortal gods."- Carlyle: Latter-day Pamphlets (parliaments, p. 93). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: BunkumSynonyms: bull (n), bullshit (n), buncombe (n), bunk (n), crap (n), dogshit (n), guff (n), hogwash (n), horseshit (n), rot (n), shit (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Boasting | Noun: boasting; Verb: boast, vaunt, crake; pretense, pretensions; puff, puffery; flourish, fanfaronade; gasconade; blague, bluff, gas; highfalutin, highfaluting; hot air, spread-eagleism; brag, braggardism; bravado, bunkum, buncombe; jactancy; bounce; venditation, vaporing, rodomontade, bombast, fine talking, tall talk, magniloquence, teratology, heroics; Chauvinism; exaggeration. |
Flattery | Incense, honeyed words, flummery; bunkum, buncombe; blarney, placebo, butter; soft soap, soft sawder; rose water. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Bunkum |
| Specialty definitions using "bunkum": Dagger-scene in the House of Commons. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Periodicals |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Bunkum" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Bunkum" is used about 12 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 12 | 101,599 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Language | Translations for "bunkum"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | bisedë pa kuptim. (various references) | |
Arabic | كلام يعوزه الصدق, خطابة يراد بها إرضاء الجمهور. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | големи приказки, дрънканици (yack). (various references) | |
Czech | žvást (claptrap, prate, talk). (various references) | |
French | blague. (various references) | |
German | blödsinn (garbage, imbecility, monkeyshine, nonsense, rubbish, stupid tricks, tomfoolery), quatsch (balderdash, baloney, bilge, blah, bull, bunk, fiddle-faddle, flubdub, garbage, gibberish, hogwash, hooey, jabberwocky, malarkey, nonsense, poppycock, rubbish, shucks, trash, twaddle). (various references) | |
Greek | αερολογίεσ (blah blah), δημοκοπία (buncombe). (various references) | |
Hungarian | lárifári hencegés, üres fecsegés (blather, blether, buncombe, froth, hot air, jangle, rant, rigmarole, verbiage), üres beszéd (blether, bunk, flapdoodle, hot air, palaver, piffle, punk, talk). (various references) | |
Manx | ommidys (absurdity, folly, foolishness, nonsense, rot, silliness). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | unkumbay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | patetice (fiddlestick, foolishness, stupidity, tomfoolery), palavreado tolo. (various references) | |
Romanian | sforãialã (snoring, snort, snorting), fleac (a piece of cake, bauble, chaff, doit, fillip, flapdoodle, flea-bite, flummery, fribble, kickshaw, knick knack, nil, nothing, nothingness, peppercorn, pin head, push over, rot, rubbish, rubble, small beer, stiver, tittle tattle, trash, trifle, trinket). (various references) | |
Russian | трескучие фразы (buncombe). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | besmislica (applesauce, balderdash, blah, blether, bosh, bull, double dutch, double talk, extravagance, fiddlestick, flubdub, mush, nonsense, pointlessness, ruck, tosh), prazne reči (lip-labor, lip-labour, verbiage). (various references) | |
Spanish | tontería poco escondida (hokum). (various references) | |
Swedish | nonsens (bosh, bunk, fandangle, gaff, hogwash, humbug, moonshine, poppycock, taradiddle, tosh). (various references) | |
Thai | การพู"หรือเขียนไร้สาระ. (various references) | |
Turkish | boş lâf (applesauce, babble, balderdash, bosh, comment, empty words, falderal, fiddle, fiddle-de-dee, flimflam, flubdub, flummery, froth, fudge, gab, galimatias, garbage, gas, guff, haver, hokum, hooey, hot air, inanity, jazz, lark, moonshine, palaver, poppycock, punk, routine, small talk, talky-talk, tripe, vaporings, vapourings, waffle, wind, wishy-wash), zırva (balderdash, baloney, bilge, blather, blether, boloney, bosh, bull, bunk, eyewash, fiddle, fiddle-de-dee, fiddle-faddle, fiddlesticks, flapdoodle, flimflam, gammon, garbage, gassing, hooey, jabber wocky, nonsense, punk, raving, ravings, rot, rubbish, stuff, tommyrot, twaddle), saçma (absurd, applesauce, balls, baloney, blind, boloney, bunk, chimerical, claptrap, cockeyed, dissemination, eradiation, fantastic, fantastical, farcical, fatuous, fiddle, fiddle-de-dee, fiddlesticks, foolish, for the birds, froth, frothy, fudge, go on, hog-wash, hooey, impertinent, inane, incongruous, inept, irrational, jabber wocky, kibosh, laugh, malarkey, nonsense, nonsensical, outlandish, paltry, pointless, poppycock, raving, rhubarb, rot, scattering, senseless, shot, shucks, skittles, small shot, smearcase, sorry, spinach, stuff, tommyrot, tosh, trash, trifling, tripe, trivial, trumpery, unreasonable, wacky, waffle, whacky), palavra (applesauce, baloney, boasting, boloney, bounce, braggadocio, bragging, bunk, claptrap, cock and bull story, eyewash, fish story, flubdub, flummery, gaff, hot air, jazz, lie, palaver, talkee-talkee, tall story). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | базікання (babble, babbling, blab, blather, blether, burble, cackle, chatter, chit chat, clatter, flubdub, gabble, gossip, jabber, piffle, prate, spiel, talk, tattle, tittle tattle, tootle, twaddle, twitter, waffle, wind, yak-yak). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | lời nói huyên thuyên (buncombe), lời nói dóc (buncombe, cram, crammer), lời nói ba hoa (buncombe, tattle), chuyện vớ vẩn (boloney, buncombe, cack, cackle, fiddle-de-dee, flapdoodle, flim-flam, guff, haver, jive, tommy rot), chuyện rỗng tuếch (buncombe, guff). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "bunkum": bunkums. (additional references) | |
| |
"Bunkum" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Bangum, Bankim, bentum, Bokum, Bokun, bonum, bunki, Bunuk, Burkemo, Fuckum, mundum. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "b-k-m-n-u-u" | |
-2 letters: bunk, numb. | |
-3 letters: bum, bun, mun, nub. | |
-4 letters: mu, nu, um, un. | |
| Words containing the letters "b-k-m-n-u-u" | |
+1 letter: bunkums. | |
+3 letters: numbskull. | |
+4 letters: numbskulls. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Translations: Modern 7. Derivations 8. Anagrams | 9. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
