as in dead metaphor
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Recent Examples of code word
The guidelines had the opposite effect, encouraging streamers to lead with the code words they’d been barred from: a push against standards meant to actually censor players.
—
Megan Farokhmanesh, WIRED, 20 Dec. 2024
The 22-year-old posted a picture on social media with a meeting room white board in the background and, on the white board, code words for plays used by the Lions were included in the photo.
—Andy Scholes, CNN, 5 Dec. 2024
Merchant allegedly used fabric weights as code words for different parts of the crime.
—Anders Hagstrom, Fox News, 11 Sep. 2024
As Jamie divulges the details of the enterprise, including the special code words staff must use in the presence of The Butcher, Cooper gets increasingly nervous.
—Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 1 Aug. 2024
See All Example Sentences for code word
Megan Farokhmanesh, WIRED, 20 Dec. 2024
The 22-year-old posted a picture on social media with a meeting room white board in the background and, on the white board, code words for plays used by the Lions were included in the photo.
—Andy Scholes, CNN, 5 Dec. 2024
Merchant allegedly used fabric weights as code words for different parts of the crime.
—Anders Hagstrom, Fox News, 11 Sep. 2024
As Jamie divulges the details of the enterprise, including the special code words staff must use in the presence of The Butcher, Cooper gets increasingly nervous.
—Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 1 Aug. 2024
See All Example Sentences for code word
Recent Examples of Synonyms for code word
Noun
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Many of our emotion terms are references to states of the body—we’re downcast, bent out of shape, head over heels, shaken up, down in the mouth—which have slowly rigidified into dead metaphor.—
Nikhil Krishnan,
The New Yorker,
1 Aug. 2022
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This shift reminds us that dead metaphors aren’t always terminally dead.—
Rob Nixon,
Smithsonian,
23 Mar. 2018
Noun
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This divine/human analogy, recalling La vie de Jésus, is a splendidly esoteric conceit.—
Armond White,
National Review,
14 Mar. 2025
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An analogy that resonates with me is that of a boy raised by a single mother.—
Ben Gebremeskel,
Forbes,
10 Mar. 2025
Noun
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Her father was a scientist and worked for NASA, so her work, including The Body’s Question and Life on Mars, is infused with the cosmos and space and all these metaphors and similes tied to the most mysterious places in the universe.—
Lisa Wong Macabasco,
Vogue,
22 Feb. 2025
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Fight analyst Dan Hardy used an interesting simile to explain the key difference between the two title fighters in Saturday night's main event at UFC 312 as middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis puts his title on the line against former champion Sean Strickland.—
Thomas G. Moukawsher,
Newsweek,
5 Feb. 2025
Noun
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The phrase is typically a euphemism for leaving discreetly, often to use the restroom.—
Russel Honoré,
Newsweek,
5 Mar. 2025
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After sixteen months of watching a genocide happen in real time—with more-or-less total support from Western governments, despite the euphemisms and justifications skillfully woven by headlines and political speeches—the contradiction is becoming harder to ignore.—
Hazlitt,
Hazlitt,
27 Feb. 2025
Noun
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There’s something about the craft elements in the artistry of filmmaking that allows for metaphor in a way that can relate stories and ideas.—
Matt Minton,
Variety,
13 Mar. 2025
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Through vivid metaphors, Dende paints a picture of unwavering devotion, comparing his connection to his partner to classic, inseparable duos.—
Michael Saponara,
Billboard,
10 Mar. 2025
Noun
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Here, instead, she’s swayed by a dead Diana softly squeezing her hand and kindly hinting — the dead Diana is an ace at tactful circumlocution — that now is the time to show a mourning nation some emotion.—
Tom Gliatto,
Peoplemag,
16 Nov. 2023
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By condensing Balzac’s opus to a few paragraphs, Barthelme was having a laugh not just at his predecessor’s genteel circumlocution—his tendency to describe buildings and manufacturing procedures and family trees in lavish detail—but also at the conventions of novelistic mimesis itself.—
Giles Harvey,
The New York Review of Books,
23 Apr. 2020
Cite this Entry
“Code word.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/code%20word. Accessed 18 Mar. 2025.
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