Word.ws English Dictionary

Johnny-one-note

Johnny-one-note noun: a person (or organization) who often expresses a strong opinion or viewpoint on a single subject or a few particular subjects.

Noun

Johnny-one-note (plural Johnny-one-notes)

  1. (Canada, US, idiomatic) A person (or organization) who often expresses a strong opinion or viewpoint on a single subject or a few particular subjects.
  2. (Canada, US, idiomatic) An opinion or viewpoint on a single subject or a few particular subjects which is frequently expressed by a person or organization.
    • Whether his boss (Hearst) had told him to get off his Johnny-one-note of hate toward labor leaders, foreigners and New Dealers, or whether Pegler had decided all by himself to change his tune, no one knew.1945 July 9, “The Press: Confessions of a Grouch”, in Time, volume 46, number 1, archived from the original on 06 Aug 2013

Forms of Johnny-one-note

pluralJohnny-one-notes
alternative formJohnny one note
alternative formJohnny one-note
alternative formJohnny One-note
alternative formJohnny One Note

Origin of Johnny-one-note

Derives from the show tune Johnny One Note, from the Rodgers and Hart musical Babes in Arms (1937), in which the lyrics tell a story of a male vocalist named Johnny who sang with a band and could sing only one note, but sang that note extremely well.

Questions about Johnny-one-note

What does Johnny-one-note mean?
Johnny-one-note means a person (or organization) who often expresses a strong opinion or viewpoint on a single subject or a few particular subjects.
What part of speech is Johnny-one-note?
Johnny-one-note is a noun.
What is the plural of Johnny-one-note?
The plural of Johnny-one-note is Johnny-one-notes.

Words near Johnny-one-note in the dictionary

  1. johnny-come-lately
  2. Johnny-jump-up
  3. Johnny-jump-ups
  4. Johnny-on-the-spot
  5. Johnny-on-the-spots
  6. Johnny-one-note
  7. Johnny-one-notes
  8. johnnycake
  9. johnnycakes
  10. Johnnys
  11. johnop

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Johnny-one-note (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-au-Johnny-one-note.ogg.

Cite this entry: “Johnny-one-note.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/johnny-one-note. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.