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chestnut

noun

ˈches(t)-(ˌ)nət How to pronounce chestnut (audio)
Definition of chestnutnext
as in bromide
an idea or expression that has been used by many people An op-ed piece that offers nothing but warmed-over chestnuts for solving the city's financial woes.

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for chestnut
  1. bromide
  2. proverb
  3. trope
  4. truism
  5. platitude
  6. banality
  7. saying
  8. shibboleth
Noun
  • Physicists at The City College of New York have demonstrated microwave-to-optical conversion using chromium sulfide bromide, or CrSBr.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 18 Sep. 2026
  • The fire contained compounds from more than two dozen chemical families, including dangerous amounts of bromide, a naturally occurring element that can irritate the skin and mucus membranes.
    — AJ Willingham, AJC.com, 29 June 2026
Definition of bromide
Noun
  • The underlying lesson of the proverb dates back at least to the time of the first Olympics in Greece — nearly 3,000 years ago, for those counting at home.
    — Shaun Goodwin, Idaho Statesman, 20 Sep. 2026
  • That proverb, attributed to everyone from Yogi Berra to a Danish Nobel laureate, springs to mind whenever someone asks me about an upcoming NFL season.
    — Jacob Robinson, New York Times, 25 Aug. 2026
Definition of proverb
Noun
  • Relying on the tropes rather than having fun with them, thwarting them.
    — Dessi Gomez, Deadline, 23 Sep. 2026
  • So many people had beaten the trope and the genre of romantic comedy to a doormat.
    — Lexy Perez, HollywoodReporter, 21 Sep. 2026
Definition of trope
Noun
  • With all the hype surrounding potential uses of AI tools, this is a truism that too often gets forgotten.
    — Bryan Mistele, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2026
  • Wars cannot be fought on ideology alone – a truism that perhaps led to the firebrand former defense minister’s departure, after months of clashes and refusing to deal with the army top brass, as Zelensky describes it.
    — Nick Paton Walsh, CNN Money, 19 Aug. 2026
Definition of truism
Noun
  • By platitudes like a peaceful and dignified death and silly words like natural.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 24 Sep. 2026
  • Running parallel to this butchery investigation is the arrival of perpetually hungover FBI agent Gwen Birgssen, played by British actress Lily James with an incomprehensible southern drawl and some clunky platitudes that veer into genre parody.
    — Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 16 Sep. 2026
Definition of platitude
Noun
  • There’s so much premeditation and passion into doing that, and to actually play that with no music and just the sound and the banality of a lifeless body being hit by some blunt instrument is very viscerally upsetting.
    — Jackie Strause, HollywoodReporter, 23 Sep. 2026
  • Then morning would come, with all the banalities that drew them apart.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 18 Aug. 2026
Definition of banality
Noun
  • The title is from [the saying] 50 is the youth of old age, but … 40 is the old age of youth.
    — Maira Garcia, Los Angeles Times, 18 Sep. 2026
  • Alas, poor Bryan is about to learn the hard way that change — as the saying goes — is as hard to outrun as an ever-growing zombie rat king with 37 different limbs and a weirdly personal vendetta.
    — David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 16 Sep. 2026
Definition of saying
Noun
  • But a new shibboleth has seized the day.
    — Bruce Stockler, Fortune, 5 Apr. 2026
  • The director scores easy laughs off of modern-day progressive shibboleths such as gender-fluid pronouns, trigger warnings and Native American land acknowledgments.
    — Gustavo Arellano, Houston Chronicle, 25 Mar. 2026
Definition of shibboleth
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

chesterfields
chestnut
chestnuts
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Cite this Entry

“Chestnut.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/chestnut. Accessed 26 Sep. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on chestnut

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about chestnut

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