/ˈwɒŋ.kɪ/, /ˈwɑŋ.ki/, /ˈwɔŋ.ki/
OriginFrom English dialectal wanky, alteration of Middle English wankel (“unstable, shaky”), from Old English wancol (“unstable”), from Proto-West Germanic *wankul (“swaying, shaky, unstable”).
- Lopsided, misaligned or off-centre.
“Who's this gimp with a wonky eye / I don't know but his lips are dry”
- Australia, British, Ireland, New-ZealandFeeble, shaky or rickety.
“It seemed likely that he would need First Aid when those wonky steps yielded, at length, to the well-known law of gravitation.”
- informalSuffering from intermittent bugs.
- informalGenerally incorrect.
- Technically worded, in the style of jargon.
“Climate change is an issue that might lend itself more easily to thematic framing in the news, due to the often highly technical and wonky language required to explain it.”
“McCain's message, while similar in content and equally as valid, is lost in the minutiae of “'high-risk' pools” and wonky jargon.”
- Technical in nature, difficult for non-specialists to understand.
“During the boom times, Paris Hilton, Snoop Dogg, Reese Witherspoon and Matt Damon all gushed about or invested in crypto projects, bringing a mainstream audience to the wonky world of digital currenci”
“[Senator Todd] Young is a low-key Indiana lawmaker with an enthusiasm for wonky, but important national security issues. He's a protégé of the late Sen. Richard Lugar, a low-key Indiana lawmaker who h”
- uncountableA subgenre of electronic music employing unstable rhythms, complex time signatures, and mid-range synths.
“By the late 2000s, dubstep had splintered into numerous factions, from brostep to wonky to the evocative “purple,” […]”
Formswonkier(comparative) · wonkiest(superlative)