popcorn

/ˈpɒp.kɔːn//ˈpɑp.kɔɹn/

popcorn noun: a snack food made from corn or maize kernels popped by dry heating.

Image: Gaurav Dhwaj Khadka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

popcorn (countable and uncountable, plural popcorns)

(uncountable) A snack food made from corn or maize kernels popped by dry heating.
- My friends and I ordered popcorn during the interval of the movie.
Synonyms:

maizypop, popmaize
1. (uncountable) A variety of corn or maize with a hard outer hull that, along with the type of starch it contains, makes it suitable for popping.
  - That farm grows popcorn.
2. (countable) A serving of popcorn.
  - I'll have a small popcorn.
  - Warner Bros has offered the two executives less than dollars 1m as an out-of-court settlement, a sum dismissed by Mr [Pierce] O'Donnell as 'two popcorns and two Cokes'.1992 July 5, Phil Reeves, “Kerpow] Dynamic duo takes on Tinseltown”, in The Independent, London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 Jul 2015
3. (countable, rare) A piece of popcorn.
  - She keeps dropping her popcorns.
  - Some popcorns silently flicked off like face peelings on his shoe.1988, Jim Freedman, “I-ran Sucks”, in Drawing Heat, Windsor, Ont.: Black Moss Press, →ISBN, page 17
4. (attributive, broadly) A bite-size food preparation made by battering and deep-frying one or more ingredients, most often chicken.
  - popcorn chicken
  - Last night we had popcorn chicken.
5. (attributive, figuratively) Entertainment that is, or has the potential to be, popular but is vapid and provides little intellectual or artistic merit.
  - The movie was entertaining enough, but it was just popcorn entertainment.
  - popcorn movies
6. (figuratively, humorous) Entertainment for observers.
  - If they get in a fight, I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the popcorn.
  - And not at all about how a state picks which group of electors to send, which is the whole basis of the NaPoVoInterCo plan, and will yield plenty more Supreme Court popcorn if it ever gets enacted.2020 July 10, CGP Grey, 3:55 from the start, in Supreme Court Rules on Faithless Electors in the Electoral College
A kind of stitch similar to a bobble.
- From the top the sample shows four stitch popcorns, five stitch bobbles, two rows of bells and a central leaf with leaves sloping to the left and right each side.2008, Claire Compton, Sue Whiting, The Knitting and Crochet Bible, page 45
(attributive) A form of brainstorming in which participants call out their ideas immediately, instead of waiting for an assigned turn to speak.
- With the "popcorn" method, all team members in the session spontaneously call out ideas and a facilitator writes them on a flip chart.2002, Betsi Harris Ehrlich, Transactional Six Sigma and Lean Servicing, page 161
- As a way to begin the discussion about God's will, you might want to ask the group to do some "popcorn" brainstorming about the pros and cons of believing that everything that happens is God's will.2011, Carolyn Jane Bohler, God the What?
A slow Belgian style of soul music popular in the early 1960s.
A Romanian style of Europop popular in the late 2000s.
A jump straight up with all four feet off the ground.

Verb

popcorn (third-person singular simple present popcorns, present participle popcorning, simple past and past participle popcorned)

To stand or jump up quickly.
- Popcorning behavior is a fun sight—as long as you know what it is. Otherwise, it can scare you. During this action a pig runs around very fast and suddenly leaps straight up in the air, twitching and squeaking. It then lands and takes off again, often in another direction. This activity shows pure...2000, Dale L. Sigler, A Grown-up's Guide to Guinea Pigs, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 58
To pop repeatedly, like popcorn cooking.
(rare) To use the popcorn stitch.
- You've been cabling, twisting, popcorning and bobbling. See, we told you that they weren't so hard.2008, Leisure Arts, I Can't Believe I'm Knitting Cables, page 9

popcorn meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

popcorn in Hindi

a snack food made from corn kernels popped by dry heating: पॉपकॉर्न pŏpkŏrn

popcorn in Tamil

a snack food made from corn kernels popped by dry heating: சோளப்பொரி cōḷappori

popcorn in Marathi

a snack food made from corn kernels popped by dry heating: लाह्या lāhyā, मक्याच्या लाह्या makyācyā lāhyā

popcorn in Urdu

پاپ کارن, پاپکارن

More languagesFewer languages

popcorn in Bengali: পপকর্ন popokorno, ভুট্টার খই bhuṭṭar khoi
popcorn in Telugu: పాప్కార్న్, పాప్ కార్న్, పాప్ కార్నింగ్
popcorn in Malayalam: പോപ്കോൺ, പോപ്പ്കോൺ, പോപ്കോണിലേക്ക്
popcorn in Kannada: ಅಳ್ಳು
popcorn in Punjabi: ਫੁੱਲਾ phullā, ਖਿੱਲ khilla
popcorn in Gujarati: મકાઈની ધાણી makāīnī dhāṇī, ફૂલી phūlī
popcorn in Odia: ପପକର୍ଣ୍ଣ, ପପକର୍ନ, ପପକର୍ନ୍
popcorn in Nepali: पपकर्न, पपकोर्न, पपकर्निंग
popcorn in Tagalog: busang mais, binusang mais, papkorn
popcorn in Arabic: فِشَار fišār, فُشَار fušār
popcorn in Malay: bertih jagung
popcorn in Indonesian: berondong jagung
popcorn in Persian: پف فیل pofefil, چس فیل čos-e fil, پاپکرن pâpkorn
popcorn in Thai: ป๊อปคอร์น bpɔ́p-kɔɔn, ข้าวโพดคั่ว kâao-pôot-kûua
popcorn in Vietnamese: bắp rang, bỏng ngô
popcorn in Myanmar: ပြောင်းဖူးပေါက်ပေါက် praung:hpu:paukpauk

Examples of popcorn in a sentence

When we went to Astoria, to see 'Drive Me Crazy,' they gave you one popcorn and the other one was free.2000 January 7, Aaron Donovan, quoting Angel, “The Neediest Cases: A ‘Big Sister’ Is Filling a Void in a Young Girl’s Life”, in The New...
Every Wednesday night is Date Night, and for $10 sweethearts can get two tickets, two popcorns and two sodas.2006 July 13, Amanda Pennington, “A new wave for cineastes”, in Daily Pilot, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN...
Don’t you feel this is nothing but throwing popcorns before a hungry elephant?1992 March 16, Shri Anbarasu Era, quotee, Lok Sabha Debates (English Version): Third Session (Tenth Lok Sabha), 10th series, volume IX...
Sarani threw a few popcorns into her mouth.2010 February 11, Sripali Vaiamon, “Conflicts in Religions and a Tidal Wave”, in The Therapy: A Novel, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, →ISBN...

All 40 example sentences with popcorn

Synonyms of popcorn

Forms of popcorn

Noun
plural	popcorns
alternative form	pop-corn
alternative form	popped corn
Verb
third-person singular present	popcorns
present participle	popcorning
past participle	popcorned
past	popcorned

Plural of popcorn: popcorns

Origin of popcorn

Short for popped corn. By surface analysis, pop + corn.

Phrases with popcorn

2 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about popcorn

What does popcorn mean?: Popcorn means a snack food made from corn or maize kernels popped by dry heating.
What is popcorn in Hindi?: Popcorn in Hindi is पॉपकॉर्न (pŏpkŏrn). See Popcorn meaning in Hindi.
How do you use popcorn in a sentence?: When we went to Astoria, to see 'Drive Me Crazy,' they gave you one popcorn and the other one was free.
What part of speech is popcorn?: Popcorn can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce popcorn?: Popcorn is pronounced /ˈpɒp.kɔːn/ (UK).
What is the plural of popcorn?: The plural of popcorn is popcorns.

Words near popcorn in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: popcorn (page history and authors); popcorn (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); popcorn (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); popcorn (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); popcorn (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); popcorn (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); popcorn (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-popcorn.wav, En-us-popcorn.ogg.

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