hokie
hokie is the alternative spelling of hokey.
Meaning of hokey
Adjective
hokey (comparative hokier, superlative hokiest)
- Phony, as if a hoax; noticeably contrived; of obviously flimsy credibility or quality.
- When asked for his book report, Chad came up with a series of hokier and hokier excuses.
- Corny; overly or unbelievably sentimental.
- Terry hated going to the cinema with Pat; she always chose hokey romantic comedies that made him want to gag.
Noun capitalized: Hokie
Hokie (plural Hokies)
Forms of hokie
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | hokier |
| superlative | hokiest |
| Noun | |
| plural | Hokies |
Origin of hokie
A term used in "Old Hokie", the athletic cheer of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, which cheer was composed by Oscar M. Stull of the VPI Class of 1896 as the winning submission of a student body contest held to mark the changing of the university's name from Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College (VAMC) to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VPI) in 1896. Stull's original term was in the form Hoki (the terminal "-e" was a later addition); the beginning lines of the cheer as composed by Stull were: "Hoki Hoki Hoki Hy / Techs Techs V.P.I!" Though "hokie" (an alternative form of "hokey" and "hoky") is, indeed, an English adjective derived from the verb hoke, and means "contrived" or "sentimental", Stull himself indicated (whether truly or falsely) that he fabricated the term solely as a poetic device for his cheer, in which case "Hokie" might be viewed as a type of nonsense word. Whichever is the case, sometime in the early 20th century Hokie, assumedly because of its prominent position in the school cheer and because of the inherent euphony of the word itself, was decontextualized from Stull's cheer to be applied as an identifier of VPI students and alumni...
Questions about hokie
- What does hokie mean?
- Hokie means a student, alumnus, or supporter of Virginia Tech/V.P.I. (University), Blacksburg, Virginia.
- What is hokie the alternative spelling of?
- Hokie is the alternative spelling of hokey.
- What part of speech is hokie?
- Hokie is a noun.
- What is the plural of hokie?
- The plural of hokie is Hokies.
Words near hokie in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hokie (page history and authors); Hokie (page history and authors); hokey (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:
Cite this entry: “hokie.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hokie. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.