more heat than light

idiom

used to say that something or someone causes anger without making something (such as an issue under discussion) better understood
Her inflammatory speech generated/produced more heat than light on the topic.
The provocative new book generates more heat than light.

Examples of more heat than light in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web History teaches that the fear of being or of seeming cowardly can lead to terrible blunders, and contemporary experience shows that invocations of cowardice typically shed more heat than light. Chris Walsh, Foreign Affairs, 17 June 2015 Sadly, much of this discourse has shed more heat than light on the controversy. IEEE Spectrum, 27 Jan. 2012 Discussions of racial issues usually throw off more heat than light and too often assume that local distinctions and attitudes are universal and immutable rather than particular and contingent. Gideon Rose, Foreign Affairs, 10 Feb. 2015

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'more heat than light.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Dictionary Entries Near more heat than light

Cite this Entry

“More heat than light.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/more%20heat%20than%20light. Accessed 31 Oct. 2024.

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