HAYSEED Synonyms: 32 Similar and Opposite Words

hayseed

noun

ˈhā-ˌsēd

Definition of hayseed

as in hick

an awkward or simple person especially from a small town or the country though educated and sophisticated, the country singer always put on the facade of an amiable hayseed when in public

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of hayseed Duke Slater, pal of Jim Nabors’ hayseed Gomer Pyle on the ’60s sitcom of that name, died of natural causes today at UCLA Hospital in Los Angeles. — Greg Evans, Deadline, 12 June 2026 Baby Billy’s first full-frontal scene is more a testament to Walton Goggins’s incredible hayseed bravado in the rule. — Scott Tobias, Vulture, 31 Mar. 2025 The movie depicts Nashville as a town full of hayseeds who are bamboozled by the fast-talking Reynolds. — Keith Sharon, Nashville Tennessean, 2 Feb. 2025 Mantle was the voluble hayseed from Oklahoma who could hit anything but was corrupted by the big city, and wound up undone by alcohol and knee injuries. — Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 21 June 2024 Today, the variety shows’ wise-clown hayseeds (overalls, prosthetic teeth, silly hats, no shoes) are the ones who get all the good lines, whose material is distinctive in its political sensibility and cultural hobbyhorses. — Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, Harper's Magazine, 30 Mar. 2024 Sort of like how Axl Rose is some hayseed with chops like Chopin. — Mike Postalakis, SPIN, 3 Aug. 2022 To share the workload, and also to teach him how to do everything, Jeremy brings on an uneducated 21-year-old blond hayseed named Kaleb who sports a series of increasingly dire haircuts as the series goes on. — Kyle Smith, National Review, 8 Aug. 2021

Recent Examples of Synonyms for hayseed

Noun

When Johnson was vice president and visiting Europe, there were reports filed by these British ambassadors in several countries that basically made fun of him as a hick.

— Wendy Naugle, USA Today, 14 Apr. 2026
So a bunch of hicks from Topeka were left up to our own devices of going down to Robert Hall and finding something that might be kind of cool.

— Devon Ivie, Vulture, 8 Apr. 2026

Definition of hick

Noun

Kerry learned this the hard way after allowing Jordan to question what appeared to be a local yokel over the mysterious shooting at a Rushville high school football game.

— Anthony D'Alessandro, Deadline, 16 Aug. 2026
It was left to the feds in Boston to arrest Farwell, after Meatball’s local yokels adamantly refused to do anything other than try to broom the crime by one of their own.

— Howie Carr, Boston Herald, 26 Apr. 2026

Definition of yokel

Noun

Marlowe, the son of a poor Canterbury cobbler, and Shakespeare, the son of a Stratford glover and alderman, were both unlikely artistic geniuses, provincials in a nation in which social class was rigidly fixed.

— Heller McAlpin, Christian Science Monitor, 10 Sep. 2025
Sanders is a Catholic priest and former Augustinian provincial in California and lives in the Augustinian community in North Park.

— Gary Sanders, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 May 2025

Definition of provincial

Noun

Dominique is in the ensemble as is a blond rube named Hunter (Kristine Froseth) who shows up at Elle’s doorstep in mall-wear denim and then upgrades to desperate, cleavage-baring sequins.

— Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 23 July 2026
The good news is that this future of an AI takeover is looking increasingly unlikely, at least at the industry’s current pace, a fact which is now dawning on some of the biggest rubes and dupes in the corporate world.

— Joe Wilkins, Futurism, 8 July 2026

Definition of rube

Noun

But my favorite Tim Curry performance will always be Pennywise, the clown in Tommy Lee Wallace’s 1990 miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s It, which, compared to Andy Muschietti’s mega popular pair of films, is modest, even a little lame.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 28 Aug. 2026
Curry, who died Tuesday at 80, made a gleefully evil turn as a clown that sparked nightmares for legions of Gen X and millennial viewers that continue to haunt to this day.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 26 Aug. 2026

Definition of clown

Browse Nearby Words

hays

hayseed

haywire

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“Hayseed.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hayseed. Accessed 2 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of hayseed

noun

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