See honky-tonk on Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "From honk-a-tonk (“a cheap nightclub”), possibly imitative.",
"forms": [
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"ref": "1969, Shel Silverstein (lyrics and music), “A Boy Named Sue”, performed by Johnny Cash:",
"text": "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 name",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1975, James Taylor (lyrics and music), “Mexico”, in Gorilla, →OCLC:",
"text": "Talking 'bout in Mexico (Mexico) / In a honky-tonk down in Mexico",
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],
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"A bar or nightclub that caters to Southern patrons and provides country music for entertainment."
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"(US) A bar or nightclub that caters to Southern patrons and provides country music for entertainment."
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},
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"Any cheap nightclub."
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"(dated) Any cheap nightclub."
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{
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"The type of music typically played in such a club."
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"(dated, uncountable) The type of music typically played in such a club."
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"derived": [
{
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"word": "honky tonk-like"
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{
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],
"glosses": [
"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."
],
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"raw_glosses": [
"(music, uncountable) 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."
],
"tags": [
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],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈhɒŋkiˌtɒŋk/"
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈhɑŋkiˌtɑŋk/"
},
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"word": "honky-tonk"
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{
"etymology_text": "From honk-a-tonk (“a cheap nightclub”), possibly imitative.",
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"text": "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 very noticeable 'twanging' sound.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2010, Alyson Camus, “Elliott Smith Reviews Reposted”, in Rock NYC:",
"text": "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 bigger and more symphonic sound in the middle, then crashes into a guitar loop (‘the roost’) which serves as a transition for the next song.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2014 March 11, Tomislav Zlatic, “Free Piano Collection For NI Kontakt 5 Released By Bigcat Instruments”, in Bedroom Producers Blog:",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Having a timbre or tone that is tinny or nasal, said especially of a honky-tonk piano."
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"(of sound) Having a timbre or tone that is tinny or nasal, said especially of a honky-tonk piano."
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"synonyms": [
{
"word": "honky tonk-like"
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],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈhɒŋkiˌtɒŋk/"
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{
"ipa": "/ˈhɑŋkiˌtɑŋk/"
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"derived": [
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{
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"etymology_text": "From honk-a-tonk (“a cheap nightclub”), possibly imitative.",
"forms": [
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{
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"type": "quote"
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"Any cheap nightclub."
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"(dated) Any cheap nightclub."
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"The type of music typically played in such a club."
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"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."
],
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[
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"(music, uncountable) 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."
],
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"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈhɒŋkiˌtɒŋk/"
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈhɑŋkiˌtɑŋk/"
},
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"etymology_text": "From honk-a-tonk (“a cheap nightclub”), possibly imitative.",
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{
"ref": "2010, Alyson Camus, “Elliott Smith Reviews Reposted”, in Rock NYC:",
"text": "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 bigger and more symphonic sound in the middle, then crashes into a guitar loop (‘the roost’) which serves as a transition for the next song.",
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{
"ref": "2014 March 11, Tomislav Zlatic, “Free Piano Collection For NI Kontakt 5 Released By Bigcat Instruments”, in Bedroom Producers Blog:",
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Download raw JSONL data for honky-tonk meaning in All languages combined (6.4kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-02 using wiktextract (b81b832 and 633533e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.