popcorn

• pop-corn, popped corn

Short for popped + corn.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɒp.kɔː(ɹ)n/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑp.kɔɹn/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• (Boston, New England) IPA^(key): /ˈpʌp.kɔɹn/, [ˈpʌp.kɒːn], [ˈpʌp.kɔɹn]

popcorn (countable and uncountable, plural popcorns)

1. (chiefly uncountable) A snack food made from corn/maize kernels popped by dry heating.
2. (chiefly uncountable) A type of corn/maize with a hard outer hull that, along with the type of starch it contains, makes it suitable for popping.
3. (knitting) A kind of stitch similar to a bobble.
   • 2008, Claire Compton, Sue Whiting, The Knitting and Crochet Bible, page 45:

     From the top the sample shows four stitch popcorns, five stitch bobbles, two rows of bells and a central leaf with leaves sloping to the left and right each side.

4. (attributive) A form of brainstorming in which participants call out their ideas immediately, instead of waiting for an assigned turn to speak.
   • 2002, Betsi Harris Ehrlich, Transactional Six Sigma and Lean Servicing, page 161:

     With the "popcorn" method, all team members in the session spontaneously call out ideas and a facilitator writes them on a flip chart.

   • 2011, Carolyn Jane Bohler, God the What?:

     As a way to begin the discussion about God's will, you might want to ask the group to do some "popcorn" brainstorming about the pros and cons of believing that everything that happens is God's will.

   • 2022, Jill Harrison Berg, Uprooting Instructional Inequity, page 155:

     Ask: What Twitter-style hashtag characterizes our community? (Use popcorn brainstorming to elicit responses.)

5. (humorous) Entertainment for observers.
   • 2020 July 10, CGP Grey, 3:55 from the start, in Supreme Court Rules on Faithless Electors in the Electoral College‎:

     And not at all about how a state picks which group of electors to send, which is the whole basis of the NaPoVoInterCo plan, and will yield plenty more Supreme Court popcorn if it ever gets enacted.

popcorn (third-person singular simple present popcorns, present participle popcorning, simple past and past participle popcorned)

1. (of a guinea pig or chinchilla) To stand or jump up quickly.
   • 2000, Dale L. Sigler, A Grown-up's Guide to Guinea Pigs, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 58:

     Popcorning behavior is a fun sight—as long as you know what it is. Otherwise, it can scare you. During this action a pig runs around very fast and suddenly leaps straight up in the air, twitching and squeaking. It then lands and takes off again, often in another direction. This activity shows pure joy. Babies start to popcorn when they are about two weeks old or so—they may try it earlier, but they usually fall down instead.

2. To pop repeatedly, like popcorn cooking.
3. (knitting, rare) To use the popcorn stitch.
   • 2008, Leisure Arts, I Can't Believe I'm Knitting Cables, page 9:

     You've been cabling, twisting, popcorning and bobbling. See, we told you that they weren't so hard.

• popkorn

• IPA^(key): [ˈpopkorn]
• Hyphenation: pop‧corn

popcorn m inan

1. popcorn

• popcorn in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu

Unadapted borrowing from English popcorn.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpopkorn/, [ˈpo̞pko̞rn]
• Syllabification^(key): pop‧corn

popcorn

1. popcorn

   Synonyms: paukkumaissi, poppari

• “popcorn”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-03

• Audio

  (file)

popcorn m (plural popcorns)

1. post-1990 spelling of pop-corn

popcorn n (definite singular popcornet, uncountable)

1. alternative spelling of popkorn

• “popkorn” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Borrowed from English popcorn.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɔp.kɔrn/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔpkɔrn
• Syllabification: pop‧corn

popcorn m inan

1. popcorn (snack food made from corn kernels popped by dry heating)

• popcorn in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• popcorn in Polish dictionaries at PWN

• popkorn

popcorn m inan (genitive singular popcornu, nominative plural popcorny, genitive plural popcornov, declension pattern of dub)

1. popcorn

• “popcorn”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2024

popcorn m (plural popcorns)

1. popcorn

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:palomita

From English popcorn. First attested in the early 1950s.

popcorn n

1. popcorn

• popcornfilm

• popcorn in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• popcorn in Svensk ordbok (SO)