campy
US/ˈkæmpi/
campy adjective: characterized by camp or kitsch, especially when deliberate or intentional.
Adjective
campy (comparative campier, superlative campiest)
- Characterized by camp or kitsch, especially when deliberate or intentional.
- Stu liked to watch campy B-movie horror flicks from the 1950s, not because they scared him, but because he found them funny.
- Poison Ivy captures the essence of "Batman and Robin," a wild, campy costume party of a movie and the first "Batman" to suggest that somewhere in Gotham City there might be a Studio 54.1997 June 20, Janet Maslin, “Batman and Robin”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC
Proper noun capitalized: Campy
Campy
- Clipping of Campylobacter.
Examples of campy in a sentence
- It no longer worked, culturally or financially, to be either snooty or campy about lowbrow culture; at the same time its mediation of highbrow culture no longer counted for much either.2000 September 21, Hal Foster, “Slumming with Rappers at the Roxy”, in London Review of Books, volume 22, number 18, →ISSN:
- A campy science-fiction/horror musical whose characters include the cross-dressing mad scientist Dr.2023 February 19, Richard Sandomir, “Sal Piro, ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ Superfan, Dies at 72”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
Synonyms of campy
Forms of campy
| comparative | campier |
|---|---|
| superlative | campiest |
Origin of campy
From camp (“an affected or exaggerated style”) + -y.
Words formed from campy
Questions about campy
- What does campy mean?
- Campy means characterized by camp or kitsch, especially when deliberate or intentional.
- How do you use campy in a sentence?
- It no longer worked, culturally or financially, to be either snooty or campy about lowbrow culture; at the same time its mediation of highbrow culture no longer counted for much either.
- What part of speech is campy?
- Campy can be an adjective or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce campy?
- Campy is pronounced /ˈkæmpi/ (US).
Words near campy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: campy (page history and authors); Campy (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-campy.wav.
Cite this entry: “campy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/campy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.