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Glite Dictionary
🏚️ A tiny town 🏚️ Small and unimportant
podunk

podunk

9.6
A place that is small and not important, like a quiet country town
  • adjective
  • /ˈpoʊdʌŋk/
  • Informal
translation icon : pueblo insignificante
  • Don't expect much from that podunk place; it only has a couple of shops and a gas station.

Not that every podunk guy should have a gun.

Examples

  • When they moved to that podunk town, they realized it was very different from the city life they were used to.

  • The restaurant in our podunk village serves some of the best homemade pie I've ever tasted.

  • It's going to be, you know, it's some podunk place where everybody's got, you know, decent amount of drinks in them and nobody sounds real good.

Synonyms

poky
vspodunk
  • Informal
1 8.5

A small, boring place with little interest

is informal and highlights being unsophisticated and backward
pokey
vspodunk
  • Informal
1 7.9

A place that is small and cramped and often far from the city and not important

is more informal and focuses on being old fashioned and unsophisticated
hicky
vspodunk
  • Offensive
9.9

Like a place or person from a small town that seems old-fashioned

is informal but emphasizes small size and lack of importance more broadly
small-townish
vspodunk
  • Informal
7.3

Feels friendly, quiet, and a little old-fashioned, as if people know each other

is negative and highlights remoteness and low importance rather than friendliness

Antonyms

city
∞ 1.0

A large town where many people live and work that has its own local government

metropolis
175 5.2

A very large important city that is the main center in a region or country

How Important

important
∞ 1.0
notable
112 3.7
podunk
  • Informal
9.6
unimportant
54 1.9
insignificant
104 4.1

Surface Forms

podunk positive

Etymology

The word podunk comes from a Native American place name that meant something like 'a place where you sink in mud' or a 'muddy spot'. People in the US began using it to describe small, out-of-the-way towns, so calling a town podunk means you think it is unimportant or unsophisticated.