honky-tonk
/ˈhɒŋkiˌtɒŋk/
honky-tonk noun: a bar or nightclub that caters to Southern patrons and provides country music for entertainment.
Noun
honky-tonk (countable and uncountable, plural honky-tonks)
- A bar or nightclub that caters to Southern patrons and provides country music for entertainment.
- But I made a vow to the moon and stars / That I'd search the honky-tonks and bars / And kill that man who gave me that awful name1969, Shel Silverstein, “A Boy Named Sue”, performed by Johnny Cash
- Talking 'bout in Mexico (Mexico) / In a honky-tonk down in Mexico1975, James Taylor, “Mexico”, in Gorilla, →OCLC
- Any cheap nightclub.
- The type of music typically played in such a club.
- A style of country music emphasizing traditional country instruments (e.g., guitar, steel guitar and fiddle); a rough, nasal vocal style; and tragic themes such as heartbreak, infidelity and alcoholism often associated with patrons of honky-tonks.
Adjective
honky-tonk (comparative more honky-tonk, superlative most honky-tonk)
- Of a sound, having a timbre or tone that is tinny or nasal, said especially of a honky-tonk piano.
- There is a method for creating the 'Honky-Tonk' effect via tuning. However, there is no agreement about exactly how it should be accomplished. One point of agreement is that the effect is created by shifting the pitch of one string per note in the entire tri-chord section by 2-5 Hz, which causes a...2001 April 28, John A. Tuttle, “Tuning the Piano for "That Honky-Tonk Sound"”, in Mechanical Music Digest Archives
- In the Lost and Found (honky Bach): The beginning of the song, which seems to be played on a tiny toy-piano delivering a piercing honky-tonk sound, surprised everybody and made critics cringe (Pitchfork hated it), although it gives an upbeat feeling to the song which progressively evolves into a...2010, Alyson Camus, “Elliott Smith Reviews Reposted”, in Rock NYC
- Synonyms:
- honky tonk-like
Examples of honky-tonk in a sentence
- New honky-tonks have been popping up across the nation, even in blue states.2025 May 5, Spencer Kornhaber, “Is This the Worst-Ever Era of American Pop Culture?”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN:
- There is a method for creating the 'Honky-Tonk' effect via tuning.2001 April 28, John A. Tuttle, “Tuning the Piano for "That Honky-Tonk Sound"”, in Mechanical Music Digest Archives:
- The freebie piano bundle features Yamaha, Steinway and Baldwin pianos, with an additional prepared piano sample library, an intimate piano sample pack, and a honky-tonk piano instrument library.2014 March 11, Tomislav Zlatic, “Free Piano Collection For NI Kontakt 5 Released By Bigcat Instruments”, in Bedroom Producers Blog:
Synonyms of honky-tonk
Forms of honky-tonk
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | honky-tonks |
| alternative form | honky tonk |
| alternative form | honkytonk |
| alternative form | honk-a-tonk |
| alternative form | honkatonk |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more honky-tonk |
| superlative | most honky-tonk |
Origin of honky-tonk
Unknown.
Words formed from honky-tonk
Phrases with honky-tonk
Questions about honky-tonk
- What does honky-tonk mean?
- Honky-tonk means a bar or nightclub that caters to Southern patrons and provides country music for entertainment.
- How do you use honky-tonk in a sentence?
- New honky-tonks have been popping up across the nation, even in blue states.
- What part of speech is honky-tonk?
- Honky-tonk can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce honky-tonk?
- Honky-tonk is pronounced /ˈhɒŋkiˌtɒŋk/.
- What is the plural of honky-tonk?
- The plural of honky-tonk is honky-tonks.
Words near honky-tonk in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: honky-tonk (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-honky-tonk.ogg.
Cite this entry: “honky-tonk.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/honky-tonk. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.