Tongue-in-cheek

adj, adv

adj, adv ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Not intended seriously; jocular or humorous. idiomatic

    "He gave a tongue-in-cheek explanation of why the sky was blue, offering a theory about some primordial discount on light blue paint."

Adjective
  1. 1
    cleverly amusing in tone wordnet
Adverb
  1. 1
    With contempt. not-comparable, obsolete
  2. 2
    With irony. not-comparable

    "He portrayed them tongue-in-cheek as great lawgivers, as Solons."

Adverb
  1. 1
    not seriously wordnet
  2. 2
    in a bantering fashion wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
amusingbanteringbanteringlybrightdivertingdroll

Example

More examples

"I use the word in a tongue-in-cheek fashion."

Etymology

This phrase alludes to the facial expression created by putting one's tongue in one's cheek. The term first appeared in print in 1828, but it isn't entirely clear that it was used with the modern, rather than a literal, sense. A later citation from Richard Barham is unambiguous.

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