What does "hootenanny" mean?

An informal, festive performance by folk singers, often including audience participation with the use of acoustic instruments.

What is a synonym for "hootenanny"?

Common synonyms include: affair, affair, article, artifact, bazinga, bizzo.

//ˈhutənæni// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Noun

1
An informal, festive performance by folk singers, often including audience participation with the use of acoustic instruments.
"The brain matches the mind-image of doughnuts to images and emotions stored in his brain’s memory regions: “Mmmm … doughnuts.” Then—bingo!—his brain’s dopamine-producing reward centres light up and have a rip-roaring hootenanny."
2
A placeholder word for a nonspecific or forgotten thing. obsolete

"They had fun at the hootenanny."

Unknown; potentially Scottish. Use is tied to the Appalachian culture in the US.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.