Word.ws English Dictionary

hokey pokey

/ˌhəʊ.kiˈpəʊ.ki/US/hoʊ̯ki poʊ̯ki/

hokey pokey noun: a confection made from golden syrup, white sugar, and baking soda; honeycomb toffee. Also the alternative spelling of Hokey Pokey.

Noun (1)

hokey pokey (usually uncountable, plural hokey pokeys)

  1. (New Zealand, usually) A confection made from golden syrup, white sugar, and baking soda; honeycomb toffee
  2. (Australia, New Zealand, usually) Vanilla ice cream with small pieces of honeycomb toffee.

Noun (2) capitalized: Hokey Pokey

Hokey Pokey

  1. (Australia, Canada, US, preceded by definite article) A group dance performed in a circle, in which people move a variety of their body parts in and out of the middle, and shake them about.
    • So he choreographs each event depending on the crowd, starting with something to learn the drill, like “Marching Through Georgia,” working in something to loosen people up like the hokeypokey, and probably a contra dance (long lines, not squares) like the Virginia reel.2008 June 19, Peter Applebome, “At 91, He Isn’t Ready for the Last Dance Just Yet”, in New York Times

Also used as

hokey pokey is also the alternative spelling of Hokey Pokey.

Synonyms of hokey pokey

Forms of hokey pokey

pluralhokey pokeys
alternative formhokey pokey
alternative formhokey-pokey
alternative formhokeypokey

Origin of hokey pokey

Unknown, compare the earlier-attested names for similar group circle dances from which the modern dance seems to have evolved, hinkumbooby from the 19th century and hankin booby from the 16th.

Words that rhyme with hokey pokey

9 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about hokey pokey

What does hokey pokey mean?
Hokey pokey means a confection made from golden syrup, white sugar, and baking soda; honeycomb toffee.
What part of speech is hokey pokey?
Hokey pokey is a noun.
How do you pronounce hokey pokey?
Hokey pokey is pronounced /ˌhəʊ.kiˈpəʊ.ki/.
What is the plural of hokey pokey?
The plural of hokey pokey is hokey pokeys.

Words near hokey pokey in the dictionary

  1. hokes
  2. hokes up
  3. hokey
  4. hokey cokey
  5. hokey cokeys
  6. hokey pokey
  7. hokey pokeys
  8. hokey tokey
  9. hokey-pokey
  10. hokey-pokeys
  11. hokeyness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hokey pokey (page history and authors); Hokey Pokey (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-hokey pokey.wav.

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