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
  • 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
  • The bromide has been debunked, but there is power — and delight — in making coffee shop drinks at home.
    — Scott Hocker, TheWeek, 25 June 2026
Definition of bromide
Noun
  • There’s a football proverb so old that, well, good luck attempting to find its original source.
    — Sam McDowell, Kansas City Star, 24 July 2026
  • The reason can be explained by a Japanese proverb about the importance of leaving no mess.
    — Lawrence Dow, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 26 June 2026
Definition of proverb
Noun
  • The book pays homage to all your classic romance tropes — fake relationship, enemies to lovers, boy next door — but spins them on their head in this new take on what happily ever after looks like.
    — Matt Grobar, Deadline, 31 July 2026
  • The series premiering on Starz is, more than anything else, blandly familiar, mining all the tropes of several popular genres without finding anything distinctive in the combination.
    — Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 30 July 2026
Definition of trope
Noun
  • There are, however, exceptions to this truism, which brings me to my brief personal list of best movie adaptations of great literature.
    — Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor, 15 July 2026
  • There’s a truism that all models are wrong, but some are useful.
    — ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 2 July 2026
Definition of truism
Noun
  • The shorter run time also means some themes get reduced into syrup; the platitudes come as fast and furious as Tao and Elle’s breakups and makeups, with too little space to breathe in between.
    — Gemma Wilson, Boston Herald, 19 July 2026
  • As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, some of America’s most visible business leaders are doing more than offering patriotic platitudes.
    — Robert Daugherty, Forbes.com, 4 July 2026
Definition of platitude
Noun
  • And yet for God’s sake, just look at the man—at his dispiriting attempts at humor, his weirdly off-putting outfits, his incessant posting of banalities and faux profundities and extreme-right disinformation on social media.
    — Mark O’Connell, The New York Review of Books, 4 July 2026
  • But together, the whole is blander than the sum of its parts—a subtle banality humans can often implicitly sense.
    — Sam Macdonald, Scientific American, 29 June 2026
Definition of banality
Noun
  • The next three chapters offer an anthology of sayings from rabbis who were active in the early centuries of the Common Era, including Hillel and Johanan ben Zakkai, among many other tannaim.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 July 2026
  • But the saying also slyly sets the stage for the men’s existential inquiries; in Cool Machine, Pepper and Carney ask themselves the same thing.
    — Niela Orr, Vulture, 20 July 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 1 Aug. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on chestnut

Nglish: Translation of chestnut for Spanish Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about chestnut

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