wonky

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Pronunciation

• (British) IPA: /ˈwɔːŋ.kɪ/
• (America) enPR: wŏngʹkē, IPA: /ˈwɑŋ.ki/, /ˈwɔŋ.ki/

Adjective

wonky (comparative wonkier, superlative wonkiest)

1. Lopsided, misaligned or off-centre.

   Synonyms: awry, lonkie, misaligned, skew-whiff

2. (chiefly, British, Australia, NZ) Feeble, shaky or rickety.

   Synonyms: rickety

3. (informal, computing, especially Usenet) Suffering from intermittent bugs.

   Synonyms: buggy, broken

4. (informal) Generally incorrect.

Noun

wonky (uncountable)

1. (music genre) A subgenre of electronic music employing unstable rhythms, complex time signatures, and mid-range synths.
   • 2015, Jan Kyrre Berg O. Friis, ‎Robert P. Crease, Technoscience and Postphenomenology: The Manhattan Papers

     By the late 2000s, dubstep had splintered into numerous factions, from brostep to wonky to the evocative “purple,” […]

Adjective

wonky (comparative wonkier, superlative wonkiest)

1. Technically worded, in the style of jargon.
   • 2009, Jesse Dale Holcomb, [https://web.archive.org/web/20160307044626/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=UT7N-Y_yWoUC&pg=PA24&dq=%22wonky+language%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAGoVChMIr-ai7v7YxgIVBlUUCh2tngH8#v=onepage&q=%22wonky%20language%22&f=false Faith, Science and Trust: Climate Change Framing Effects and Conservative Protestant Opinion]

     Climate change is an issue that might lend itself more easily to thematic framing in the news, due to the often highly technical and wonky language required to explain it.

   • 2010, Michael Maslansky, Scott West, Gary DeMoss, David Saylor, The Language of Trust: Selling Ideas in a World of Skeptics ↗

     McCain's message, while similar in content and equally as valid, is lost in the minutiae of “'high-risk' pools” and wonky jargon.

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