psychobabble
noun
psy·cho·bab·ble
ˈsī-kō-ˌba-bəl 
1
: a predominantly metaphorical language for expressing one's feelings
2
a
: psychological jargon
b
: trite or simplistic language derived from psychotherapy
repeating the usual psychobabble about self-discovery—
Mark Coleman
Mark Coleman
psychobabble
intransitive verb
Examples of psychobabble in a Sentence
a popular book filled with the usual psychobabble
Recent Examples on the Web
This is the modernist quest reduced to Silicon Valley psychobabble.
—Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 27 Oct. 2022
The show is savvy enough to sense how easily human ache can fall prey to the manipulative language of certain practitioners, and how alluring psychobabble can be, in the right context.
—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 19 Aug. 2021
To the uninitiated, this might read like so much innocuous psychobabble.
—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 8 Nov. 2020
The fetishistic horse business is merely a weird aesthetic choice that's explained away with a bit of perfunctory psychobabble.
—Katie Walsh, latimes.com, 2 May 2018
Even taking the Super Bowl hangover psychobabble into account, this looks more like a mechanical problem than a mental one — for now.
—Dan Wolken, USA TODAY, 19 Oct. 2017
Such speculation makes psychobiography sound like little more than psychobabble.
—Jason Zinoman, New York Times, 2 June 2017
As Elgafink, Bruiser’s sympathetic shrink, Kellie Spill gooses psychiatry and parodies psychobabble.
—Orange County Register, 9 Feb. 2017
So is the very way in which the teachers address one another, a psychobabble presumably born of workshops on treating students with sensitivity.
—Ben Brantley, New York Times, 9 Oct. 2016
Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 27 Oct. 2022
The show is savvy enough to sense how easily human ache can fall prey to the manipulative language of certain practitioners, and how alluring psychobabble can be, in the right context.
—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 19 Aug. 2021
To the uninitiated, this might read like so much innocuous psychobabble.
—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 8 Nov. 2020
The fetishistic horse business is merely a weird aesthetic choice that's explained away with a bit of perfunctory psychobabble.
—Katie Walsh, latimes.com, 2 May 2018
Even taking the Super Bowl hangover psychobabble into account, this looks more like a mechanical problem than a mental one — for now.
—Dan Wolken, USA TODAY, 19 Oct. 2017
Such speculation makes psychobiography sound like little more than psychobabble.
—Jason Zinoman, New York Times, 2 June 2017
As Elgafink, Bruiser’s sympathetic shrink, Kellie Spill gooses psychiatry and parodies psychobabble.
—Orange County Register, 9 Feb. 2017
So is the very way in which the teachers address one another, a psychobabble presumably born of workshops on treating students with sensitivity.
—Ben Brantley, New York Times, 9 Oct. 2016
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'psychobabble.' 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 psychobabble
Cite this Entry
“Psychobabble.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/psychobabble. Accessed 23 Apr. 2024.
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