Word.ws English Dictionary

ballyhoo

/bæliˈhuː/

ballyhoo noun: sensational or clamorous advertising or publicity.

Noun (1)

ballyhoo (plural ballyhoos)

  1. (informal) Sensational or clamorous advertising or publicity.
  2. (informal) Noisy shouting or uproar.
    • Talk, it's only talk / Babble, burble, banter / Bicker, bicker, bicker / Brouhaha, balderdash, ballyhoo / It's only talk / Back talk1981, “Elephant Talk”, in Discipline, performed by King Crimson

Verb

ballyhoo (third-person singular simple present ballyhoos, present participle ballyhooing, simple past and past participle ballyhooed)

  1. (informal, transitive) To sensationalize or make grand claims.
    • Industry has picked up, railroads are carrying more freight, farm prices are better, but I am not going to indulge in issuing proclamations of over-enthusiastic assurance. We cannot ballyhoo ourselves back to prosperity.1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Fireside Chat (7 May)

Noun (2)

ballyhoo (plural ballyhoos or ballyhoo)

  1. Certain species in family Hemiramphidae, inshore, surface-dwelling needlefish forming sizeable schools.
    1. Hemiramphus brasiliensis

Noun (3)

ballyhoo (plural ballyhoos)

  1. An unseaworthy or slovenly ship.

ballyhoo meaning in Malayalam and Kannada

ballyhoo in Malayalam

advertising, publicity, promotion
പരസ്യപ്പൂരം, ശബ്ദായമാനമായ പ്രചരണം, അനാവശ്യമായ ഒച്ചപ്പാട്, പ്രചാരണബഹളം, പ്രചണ്ഡപ്രചാരണം, പ്രചാരണഘോഷം

ballyhoo in Kannada

ಪ್ರಚಾರ, ಅಸಭ್ಯಪ್ರಚಾರ

Synonyms of ballyhoo

Forms of ballyhoo

Noun
pluralballyhoos
pluralballyhoo
Verb
third-person singular presentballyhoos
present participleballyhooing
past participleballyhooed
pastballyhooed

Origin of ballyhoo

Uncertain. Perhaps a shortening of the Irish village Ballyhooly, known for its rowdiness.

Borrowed from Spanish balajú.

Possibly from Spanish balahú (“schooner”).

Words formed from ballyhoo

Questions about ballyhoo

What does ballyhoo mean?
Ballyhoo means sensational or clamorous advertising or publicity.
What is ballyhoo in Malayalam?
Ballyhoo in Malayalam is പരസ്യപ്പൂരം, ശബ്ദായമാനമായ പ്രചരണം, അനാവശ്യമായ ഒച്ചപ്പാട്. See Ballyhoo meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is ballyhoo?
Ballyhoo can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce ballyhoo?
Ballyhoo is pronounced /bæliˈhuː/.
What is the plural of ballyhoo?
The plural of ballyhoo is ballyhoos.

Words near ballyhoo in the dictionary

  1. Ballygowan
  2. Ballyhack
  3. Ballyhaise
  4. Ballyhale
  5. Ballyhoge
  6. ballyhoo
  7. ballyhooed
  8. ballyhooer
  9. ballyhooers
  10. ballyhooing
  11. ballyhoos

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ballyhoo (page history and authors); ballyhoo (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); ballyhoo (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-ballyhoo.ogg, en-au-ballyhoo.ogg.

Cite this entry: “ballyhoo.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ballyhoo. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.