What does "redneck" mean?

A poor, rural, usually white, person from the Southern United States or parts of the Midwest and Northeast, especially one whose beliefs are seen as unsophisticated and backward; sometimes with additional connotations of being bigoted.

What is a synonym for "redneck"?

Common synonyms include: cracker, adlay, backwoodsman, bam, barry boy, bazza.

Redneck

//ˈɹɛdnɛk// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1
A poor, rural, usually white, person from the Southern United States or parts of the Midwest and Northeast, especially one whose beliefs are seen as unsophisticated and backward; sometimes with additional connotations of being bigoted. US, derogatory, ethnic, offensive, slang, slur, usually
2
a poor White person in the southern United States wordnet
3
yokel, hick, country bumpkin broadly, derogatory
"Sample a look back you look and find / Nothing but rednecks for 400 years if you check"
4
Any of the miners who wore red bandanas for identification during the West Virginia mine war of 1921. US, historical, slang
5
A member of a certain Baltimore street gang, active in 1859. US, historical, slang

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6
A Roman Catholic. UK, archaic, slur

Synonyms

All synonyms

cracker adlay backwoodsman bam barry boy bazza

Antonyms

All antonyms

class

Example

More examples

"The way he talks and acts, you can tell he's a redneck."

Etymology

Bahuvrīhi compound of red + neck. Compare rooinek. The term originally characterized farmers that had a red neck, caused by sunburn from long hours working in the fields.

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