Word.ws English Dictionary

clown-car primary

US/ˈklaʊn kɑɹ ˌpɹaɪməɹi/

clown-car primary noun: a primary election with a large number of serious candidates, usually more than four, making it possible that the winner will have been chosen by only a small portion of the electorate.

Noun

clown-car primary (plural clown-car primaries)

  1. (US, derogatory) A primary election with a large number of serious candidates, usually more than four, making it possible that the winner will have been chosen by only a small portion of the electorate.
    • Two Months into Republicans' Clown Car Primary, WSJ/NBC Poll Finds Voters Turning against the GOP - Again [title]2012 March 5, Jon Ponder, “Two Months into Republicans' Clown Car Primary, WSJ/NBC Poll Finds Voters Turning against the GOP - Again”, in Pensito Review, archived from the original on 11 Jun 2012
    • The Republicans held a clown-car primary in 2012 with a dozen debates where their credo of hewing to the party line (more conservative than thou) prevented any candidate from emerging looking presidential.2015, Michael Page, This Is Your Government On Drugs, Xlibris Corporation, page 282

Forms of clown-car primary

pluralclown-car primaries

Origin of clown-car primary

From clown car + primary.

Questions about clown-car primary

What does clown-car primary mean?
Clown-car primary means a primary election with a large number of serious candidates, usually more than four, making it possible that the winner will have been chosen by only a small portion of the electorate.
What part of speech is clown-car primary?
Clown-car primary is a noun.
How do you pronounce clown-car primary?
Clown-car primary is pronounced /ˈklaʊn kɑɹ ˌpɹaɪməɹi/ (US).
What is the plural of clown-car primary?
The plural of clown-car primary is clown-car primaries.

Words near clown-car primary in the dictionary

  1. clown shows
  2. clown therapy
  3. clown world
  4. clown worlds
  5. clown-car primaries
  6. clown-car primary
  7. clownage
  8. clowncel
  9. clowncels
  10. clowncore
  11. clowndom

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: clown-car primary (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.

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