How to Use rebus in a Sentence

rebus

noun

• Esc — toggles rebus mode Delete — delete cell and go to previous cell.
  — San Francisco Chronicle, 14 Mar. 2024
• But shouldn’t this rebus apply to every O in the puzzle, not just the ones in the theme answers?
  — Sean McGowan, New York Times, 3 Sep. 2026
• There’s a rebus square, a visual joke and a truly elegant design choice.
  — Sam Corbin, New York Times, 22 July 2026
• Armed with this method, solvers can triangulate the remaining two rebus squares.
  — Sean McGowan, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2026
• Others contain rebus elements, and some are just plain witty.
  — Sam Corbin, New York Times, 22 July 2026
• The clue’s mention of three specific squares could indicate three rebuses.
  — Sean McGowan, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2026
• There must be a rebus square here, which solvers can pinpoint by cracking the entries that intersect 17A.
  — Sean McGowan, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2026
• Each circled square contains not one, but two rebus elements — each a number, spelled out — that complete a pair of crossing entries.
  — Eleanor Kagan, New York Times, 27 Nov. 2025
• Spacebars and rebus assists Answers can be multiple words.
  — San Francisco Chronicle, 14 Mar. 2024
• Today’s Theme This is a rebus crossword, in which some squares contain multiple letters.
  — Sean McGowan, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2026
• Start by studying the puzzle’s theme revealer, which is often the clearest indicator of a rebus.
  — Sean McGowan, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2026
• After all, this puzzle has several answers that are evidently correct, but don’t fit in the grid — a telltale sign of a shove-’em-in rebus.
  — Sean McGowan, New York Times, 22 July 2026
• Each team was given an envelope containing twelve brainteasers—rebuses, letter grids—that could be solved in any order, leading to sites around the theatre.
  — Michael Schulman, New Yorker, 15 Dec. 2025
• The drapery or scrollwork around a shield is called a lambrequin, a five-petaled flower is called a cinquefoil, and an emblem or animal that puns on the bearer’s name is called a rebus.
  — Helen Lewis, The Atlantic, 9 June 2026
• Thursdays and, less frequently, Sundays are typically when crosswords with rebuses or other tricks appear.
  — Sean McGowan, New York Times, 10 Sep. 2026
• Today’s Theme There’s no rebus that calls for entering multiple letters into a square today, but there is a rebus in the traditional sense, where a symbol is used to represent a word.
  — Sean McGowan, New York Times, 3 Sep. 2026