totemic
adjective
to·tem·ic
tō-ˈte-mik 
Examples of totemic in a Sentence
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For Americans in the 1880s and 1890s, the Gold Standard would become the totemic issue.
—
David McWilliams, Fortune, 16 Nov. 2025
Likewise, the pipelines became totemic of the dependence on cheap Russian hydrocarbons that critics felt Europe traded for a principled stance on Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine in 2014 and Georgia in 2008.
—Joseph Ataman, CNN Money, 15 Nov. 2025
Hemingway is the totemic U.S. author, Nobel Prize winner and larger-than-life personality known for novels including The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea.
—Andreas Wiseman, Deadline, 4 Nov. 2025
In certain ideological precincts, Mamdani’s name has become totemic—shorthand for everything wrong with New York, which itself is shorthand for everything wrong with America.
—Eric Lach, New Yorker, 9 Oct. 2025
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David McWilliams, Fortune, 16 Nov. 2025
Likewise, the pipelines became totemic of the dependence on cheap Russian hydrocarbons that critics felt Europe traded for a principled stance on Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine in 2014 and Georgia in 2008.
—Joseph Ataman, CNN Money, 15 Nov. 2025
Hemingway is the totemic U.S. author, Nobel Prize winner and larger-than-life personality known for novels including The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea.
—Andreas Wiseman, Deadline, 4 Nov. 2025
In certain ideological precincts, Mamdani’s name has become totemic—shorthand for everything wrong with New York, which itself is shorthand for everything wrong with America.
—Eric Lach, New Yorker, 9 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for totemic
Cite this Entry
“Totemic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/totemic. Accessed 25 Nov. 2025.
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