Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Tacky |
TackyAdjective1. (of a glutinous liquid such as paint) not completely dried and slightly sticky to the touch; "tacky varnish". 2. Tastelessly showy; "a flash car"; "a flashy ring"; "garish colors"; "a gaudy costume"; "loud sport shirts"; "a meretricious yet stylish book"; "tawdry ornaments". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "tacky" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1960. (references) |
Synonyms: TackySynonyms: brassy (adj), cheap (adj), flash (adj), flashy (adj), garish (adj), gaudy (adj), gimcrack (adj), loud (adj), meretricious (adj), tatty (adj), tawdry (adj), trashy (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Deterioration | Wreck, mere wreck, honeycomb, magni nominis umbra; jade, plug, rackabones, skate; tackey, tacky. |
Adjective: unimproved; (improve; ); deteriorated; Verb: altered, altered for the worse; injured; Verb: sprung; withering, spoiling; Verb: on the wane, on the decline; tabid; degenerate; marescent; worse; the worse for, all the worse for; out of repair, out of tune; imperfect; the worse for wear; battered; weathered, weather-beaten; stale, passe, shaken, dilapidated, frayed, faded, wilted, shabby, secondhand, threadbare; worn, worn to a thread, worn to a shadow, worn to the stump, worn to rags; reduced, reduced to a skeleton; far gone; tacky. | |
Semiliquidity | Gelatinous, albuminous, mucilaginous, glutinous; glutenous, gelatin, mastic, amylaceous, ropy, clammy, clotted; viscid, viscous; sticky, tacky, gooey; slab, slabby; lentous, pituitous; mucid, muculent, mucous; gummy. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Tacky |
| English words defined with "tacky": Tackey. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "tacky": DRIER-OPERATOR HELPER, dry-room helper ♦ FITTER-PLACER ♦ ROLLER VARNISHER. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | No, it's just tacky. (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; writing credit: Doreen Spicer) Is this belt tacky or beltacular (Two Weeks Notice; writing credit: Marc Lawrence) Oh Tim, that's so tacky. (Spaced; writing credit: Simon Pegg; Jessica Stevenson) | |
Tongue Twisters | Tacky tractor trailer trucks. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Tacky Sue's Romance (1917) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Tacky" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 99.15% of the time. "Tacky" is used about 118 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 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 99.15% | 117 | 29,823 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.85% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 118 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "tacky": be tacky. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "tacky": ticky-tacky. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
tacky | 21 | tacky finger | 3 |
tacky mat | 13 | approach tacky | 3 |
tacky tourist | 10 | card post tacky | 3 |
tacky tape | 9 | party tacky | 3 |
tacky glue | 8 | bed heart sims tacky | 3 |
tacky the penguin | 7 | aleenes glue tacky | 3 |
jacks tacky | 5 | pad saddle tack tacky | 3 |
gift tacky | 4 | tacky ticky | 3 |
light tacky | 4 | box little made tacky ticky | 2 |
tacky tape terrifically | 4 | tacky vac | 2 |
tacky wedding | 3 | clothes tacky | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "tacky"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | ngjitës (adhesive, agglutinative, ascendant, catching, cement, communicable, contagious, dauby, epidemic, epidemical, glue, gluey, glutinous, gooey, gummy, hum paste, infectious, mucilage, pitchy, soaring, stick, sticking, sticky, tenacious, transmissible, upward, viscous). (various references) | |
Arabic | مبتذل (banal, common, commonplace, conventional, corny, everyday, fade, fading, hack, hackneyed, outworn, overused, pedestrian, platitudinous, plebeian, prosaic, prose, routine, slipshod, stale, stereotyped, threadbare, tired, trite, trivial, vapid, vulgar, well worn, workaday, worn out), لزج (adherent, adhesive, clingy, glairy, gluey, glutinous, gummy, ropy, slimy, sticky, stringy, tenacious, tough, viscid, viscous), حقير (abject, base, beggarly, blackguardly, cheap, despicable, dingy, dirty, frowzy, grubby, ignoble, inferior, insignificant, lousy, low, low down, lowly, mean, menial, niggling, paltry, pettifogger, petty, pip squeak, pitiable, pitiful, poor, popinjay, rotten, scabby, scaly, scoundrelly, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, servile, shabby, shoddy, slavish, slim, slushy, small minded, snide, sod, squalid, swine, trifling, ungracious, unworthy, varmint, vile, villainous, worthless, wretched), رث الثياب (ragged, tattered), ردئ (bad, base, bastard, bum, coarse, common, doggie, evil, fearful, fiendish, foul, ill, inferior, nice, paltry, poor, poorness, putrid, second rate, slim, sour, tinpot, unhealthy, vicious, villainous, watery), دبق (adhesive, clingy, fatty, gelation, glutinous, gummy, limy, slimy, sticky, stringy, tenacious, viscid, viscous). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | раздърпан (dishevelled, tatty), натруфен (dressy, elaborate, gingerbread, luxurious, ornate, orotund, tawdry, twopence colored, twopence coloured), лепкав (adherent, adhesive, clammy, clayey, gluey, glutinous, gluttonous, gooey, gummy, limy, smeary, sticky, stiff, stringy, tenacious, treacly), показващ лош стил, показващ лош вкус. (various references) | |
Chinese | 发黏. (various references) | |
Czech | odfláknutý, odbytý (finished), lepkavý (adhesive, clammy, gluey, glutinous, gooey, limy, smeary, sticky). (various references) | |
Dutch | kleverig (sticky). (various references) | |
Farsi | چسبناک (Cohesive, Goo, Gooey, Slab, Stick, Sticky, String), نخ نما (Shabby), کهنه (Ancient, Antique, Archaic, Bygone, Clout, Dead, Gray, Lint, Musty, Obsolescent, Obsolete, Old, Olden, Pokey, Ragged, Rundown, Shabby, Timeworn, Wad), رنگ ورورفته . (various references) | |
French | poisseux (tack). (various references) | |
German | klebrig (adhesive, clammily, gluey, glutinous, glutinously, glutinuos, gooey, gummy, ropily, ropy, stickily, sticky, stringy, tenacious, viscous). (various references) | |
Greek | κακοντυμένοσ (dowdy), κολλώδησ (adhesive, gluey, glutinous, gooey, gummy, mucilaginous, pasty, sticky, viscid, viscous), ευτελήσ (cheap, low, mean, shabby, soulless, worthless). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מוז ח (abandoned, forsaken, neglected, seedy, slipshod, unkempt), שחוק (crushed, derision, ground, laughter, mockery, pounded, ragged, tattered, worn). (various references) | |
Hungarian | tapadós (clam, clammy, clingy, fat, glairy, stiff), ragadós (adherent, adhesive, dauby, gluey, glutinous, gummy, lentous, mucilaginous, sticky, stiff, viscid, viscous), tapadó (adherent, adhesive, clinging, cohesive), rosszul öltözött (dowdy, frumpish, raggedy-ass, scruffy), lompos (dowdy, draggle-tailed, mangy, slatternly, sleazy, slipshod, slovenly), csiricsáré (flash, flashy, gimcrack, gingerbread, showy, tawdry). (various references) | |
Italian | viscoso (ropey, ropy, sticky, viscous), appiccicoso (clinging, pasty, sticking, sticky). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ackytay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | pegajoso (clammy, clinging, clingy, cloggy, dauby, gluey, gummy, lentous, limy, ropy, slimy, sticky, stringy, viscid, viscous). (various references) | |
Romanian | lipicios (adhesive, agglutinative, gluey, glutinous, gummy, limy, mucous, slimy, sticky, unctuous, viscous). (various references) | |
Russian | липкий (adhesive, clingy, dauby, gluey, glutinous, goo, gooey, gummy, lentous, ropy, sticky, viscous). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | upadljiv (broad, conspicuous, marked, noticeable, prominent, showy, striking), odrpan (ragged), lepljiv (adherent, adhesive, agglutinative, clammy, cloggy, gluey, glutinous, gummy, sticking, sticky, treacly), dronjav (ragged, tattered), drečav (flaring, garish, gaudy, loud). (various references) | |
Spanish | pegajoso (adhesive, boring, clammy, clinging, gluey, gooey, gummy, sticking, sticky, tackier). (various references) | |
Swedish | klibbig (adhesive, clingy, dauby, gluey, glutinous, gooey, gummy, lentous, limy, sticky). (various references) | |
Thai | เหนียว (gluey, glutinous, sticky, tenacious, thick), รสนิยมต่ำ. (various references) | |
Turkish | yapış yapış (gluey, glutinous, gummy, ropy, sticky, viscid, viscous), yırtık pırtık (ragged, shabby, tattered, tattered and torn, tatty), pejmürde (down at heels, down heels, down the heels, out at heels, ragged, shabby), dökülmüş, ıslak (damp, dank, liquid, moist, slobbery, sloppy, soppy, splashy, sticky, watery, wet). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | клейкий (adherent, adhesive, agglutinative, clammy, gluey, glutinous, gooey, gummy, mucilaginous, tenacious, viscid, viscous), липкий (adhesive, agglutinative, clammy, sticky). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | xác xơ; t"i t n. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Tacky" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Akcay, gacky, hacky, nacky, shacky, tacay, tacc, tachy, tacke, tackl, tackly, tacty, tacy, tahki, takki, takky, taky, talck, taxy, teeky, ticey, ticky, Tucci, tucky, tyack. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "tacky" (pronounced ta"kē) |
| 3 | -a" k ē | Jacky, lackey, wacky. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-k-t-y" | |
-1 letter: caky, kyat, tack, yack. | |
-2 letters: act, cat, cay, kat, kay, yak. | |
-3 letters: at, ay, ka, ta, ya. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-k-t-y" | |
+1 letter: tackey, talcky. | |
+2 letters: rackety, tackify, tackily. | |
+3 letters: backstay, haystack, jackstay, latchkey, staticky, trackway. | |
+4 letters: ankylotic, backstays, haystacks, jackstays, latchkeys, plasticky, stockyard, trackways, yardstick. | |
+5 letters: bankruptcy, eukaryotic, karyotypic, kerygmatic, stockyards, tackifying, tracklayer, yardsticks. | |
| 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: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Derivations 11. Rhymes 12. Anagrams | 13. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
