Japery
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Jesting, joking countable, uncountable
"In his opening pages he defines snark negatively — as a practice that certain famed comics are often charged with, but undeservedly and inaccurately because they actually trade in “irony” and also, one can’t help but gather from Denby’s remarks, because they’re politically virtuous in their japery, even when their words seem cruel and harsh."
- 2 acting like a clown or buffoon wordnet
Example
More examples"In his opening pages he defines snark negatively — as a practice that certain famed comics are often charged with, but undeservedly and inaccurately because they actually trade in “irony” and also, one can’t help but gather from Denby’s remarks, because they’re politically virtuous in their japery, even when their words seem cruel and harsh."
Etymology
From jape + -ery.
More for "japery"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.