bunco
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A swindle or confidence trick.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
buhngkohSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbʌŋkoʊ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
usslang
A swindle or confidence trick.
uncountable
A parlour game played in teams with three dice, originating in England but popular among suburban women in the United States at the beginning of the 21st century.
A brigand.
verb
transitiveintransitiveusslang
To swindle (someone).
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A swindle or confidence trick.
Used this way, bunco is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in everyday conversation and social media or informal writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Very casual
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Playful
- Usage feel
- Playful and informal
Where it naturally appears
- Everyday conversation
- Social media/informal writing
Usage note
Slang: natural in speech and messages between friends, but out of place in school, work or published writing.
Nearby words
- bunko , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A swindle in which you cheat at gambling or persuade a person to buy worthless property.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.