What does baloney mean?
Baloney is an informal English noun meaning nonsense — foolish, exaggerated, or insincere talk that deserves to be dismissed. It is used colloquially, especially in American speech, often in exclamations like 'That's pure baloney!' or 'Cut the baloney.' The word has a delightfully culinary origin: it is an alteration of 'bologna', the name of the large smoked sausage associated with the Italian city of Bologna, and in North America 'baloney' still survives as a variant spelling and pronunciation of the sausage itself. As an expression of disbelief or contempt for empty words, it sits alongside cousins like 'hogwash', 'rubbish', and 'claptrap'. Its blend of food imagery and verbal dismissal makes it memorable, and its informal register means it appears far more often in conversation and journalism than in formal writing.
Foolish, exaggerated, or insincere talk; nonsense.
"Everything he told us about his credentials turned out to be complete baloney."
Informal register; used dismissively.
A smoked, seasoned sausage; a North American variant of bologna.
"She made a sandwich with a couple of slices of baloney."
Rarely pluralized; when referring to multiple sausages, 'baloney' is usually treated as uncountable.
"The deli stocked several kinds of baloney."
The word for nonsense comes straight off a deli counter — 'baloney' is just a respelling of Bologna, the Italian city famous for its sausage.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of baloney
Baloney derives from 'bologna', the name of the smoked sausage originating in Bologna, Italy. The altered form 'baloney' arose in American English through respelling to match the common pronunciation, and by the early twentieth century it had developed figurative slang use meaning nonsense. Its closest relative is the word 'bologna' itself, which shares the same origin as the Italian city name.
How baloney is actually used
Informal and colloquial, common in American English. When referring to the sense of nonsense, it is almost always used dismissively or humorously. The sausage sense is largely regional to North America and overlaps with 'bologna'.
Easily confused with baloney
Bologna is the sausage itself, while baloney is primarily an informal word for nonsense — though baloney is also a variant name for that same sausage.