as in simile
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for catachresis
Noun
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No metaphors or similes or hyperbolic language needed here – your kids are next.—
Rob Gagnon,
Hartford Courant,
25 Mar. 2025 -
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
Noun
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With his vocabulary and euphemisms clearly formed by his affinity for fantasy fiction and medieval tales of knights and kings, Connor strikes an indelible impression on the show.—
Joe Reid,
Vulture,
10 May 2025
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The claim that euphemisms for death are somehow unique to Vietnamese culture is absurd in the extreme.—
Andrea Long Chu,
Vulture,
6 May 2025
Noun
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When these optimization processes lead to outcomes that disregard human values or well-being in subtle yet significant ways, the analogy to psychopathic tendencies becomes less of a hyperbolic statement and more of a cautionary observation.—
Cornelia C. Walther,
Forbes.com,
24 May 2025
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So Penders goes for the colorful analogy, me for the random Hamlet references.—
Dom Amore,
Hartford Courant,
19 May 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
Noun
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Cats, however, may turn out to be the canaries in the coalmines — pardon the mixed metaphor.—
Jan Ellen Spiegel,
Hartford Courant,
24 Dec. 2024
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Cats, however, may turn out to be the canaries in the coalmines — pardon the mixed metaphor.—
Jan Ellen Spiegel,
Hartford Courant,
24 Dec. 2024
Noun
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Halbreich told me that prominent art institutions are already using code words, like community, to talk about diversity.—
Rachel Corbett,
Vulture,
10 Apr. 2025
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These traffickers often use code words and emojis to avoid being detected by law enforcement or censored by platform guidelines.—
Rachel Hale,
USA Today,
3 Apr. 2025
Noun
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In an era of horror mired in pathos and trauma metaphors, there’s a refreshing simplicity to movies that are just about finding new ways to turn people into goop.—
Louis Peitzman,
Vulture,
22 May 2025
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The prison was both a historical set piece and a metaphor — symbolizing his emotional confinement.—
Victoria Bousis,
Rolling Stone,
22 May 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Catachresis.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/catachresis. Accessed 29 May. 2025.
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