hokum
/ˈhəʊkəm/
"hokum" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hokum” is uncommon English (frequency #91,610 among 23,837 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #91,610
- frequency rank, English
- 23,837
- “H” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - (An instance of) meaningless nonsense with an outward appearance of being impressive and legitimate.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | hokum |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈhəʊkəm/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #91,610 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “hokum” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
hokum is uncommon English at frequency #91,610 among 23,837 “H” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈhəʊkəm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for hokum in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Uncertain; first attested as US theater slang, possibly a blend of hocus-pocus + bunkum. The correct English form is hokum, spelled H-O-K-U-M.
Definition
- 1(An instance of) meaningless nonsense with an outward appearance of being impressive and legitimate.
- 2(An instance of) excessively contrived, hackneyed, or sentimental material in a film, television programme, theater production, etc.
- 3A film, television programme, theater production, etc., containing excessively contrived, hackneyed, or sentimental material.
- 4A genre of blues song or music, often characterized by sexual innuendos or satire.
Etymology
Uncertain; first attested as US theater slang, possibly a blend of hocus-pocus + bunkum.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “hokum”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-O-K-U-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈhəʊkəm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.