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.

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for chestnut
Noun
  • These films explore those bonds without ever resorting to bromides or mawkishness.
    Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 7 Nov. 2025
  • Exposure to chemical warfare agents—such as nerve gas—or to pyridostigmine bromide, a drug given to soldiers as a preventive measure against chemical attacks, may have played a role.
    Aliss Higham, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • The lyrics, some inspired by proverbs and biblical passages, convey the fervor of his first love with God, without losing his personal touch.
    Jessica Roiz, Billboard, 17 Oct. 2025
  • His tale has become a proverb for any outdoor fanatic who, despite all of the proper planning and preparation, is undone by forces more powerful than him or herself.
    Frederick Dreier, Outside, 7 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • Many of these same tropes appear in movies such as The Matrix (1999), I, Robot (2004), Transcendence (2014), Ex Machina (2015), M3gan (2022), The Creator (2023), and others.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 5 Nov. 2025
  • There’s a reason why the enemies-to-lovers trope is so popular in the romance book community, and Bailey and Ashley only helped further prove it as their icy onscreen clashes slowly melted into a fiery (and definitely temperature-raising) romance.
    Emlyn Travis, Entertainment Weekly, 4 Nov. 2025
Noun
  • One truism in Latin American politics is that nearly every revolt is fueled by the frustration of junior army officers.
    Quico Toro, The Atlantic, 4 Nov. 2025
  • But the movie’s soft-hearted underbelly fails to support that reading, and by the time the story finally arrives at its final moments, the unsparing cynicism that supplied its initial lift has been dragged back down to Earth by the weight of bland truisms.
    David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 15 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • This is now a political war that has escalated far beyond the ethical platitudes some use to argue against Proposition 50.
    Marc Lampe, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Oct. 2025
  • Continue reading … BLIND LOYALTY – Karine Jean-Pierre has rocky rollout for book as reviews pan Biden defense, platitudes.
    , FOXNews.com, 24 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • The novel’s power lies in its relentless banality—the mind churning while life’s machinery grinds on.
    The New Yorker, New Yorker, 3 Nov. 2025
  • Evil is aided and abetted by the banality of institutions and their functionaries.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 17 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • The new space resembles the old, complete with walls covered in graffiti with names, sayings, and pictures of the old Post Bar.
    Susan Selasky, Freep.com, 7 Nov. 2025
  • Amish are part of the wider Anabaptist movement, which puts heavy emphasis on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, containing some of his most radical and counter-cultural sayings — to love enemies, live simply, bless persecutors, turn the other cheek and to endure sufferings joyfully.
    Dave Smith, Fortune, 30 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • This opens up the possibility that the agency can finally be wrenched away from divisive ideologies and progressive shibboleths and become a streamlined international-development assistance system that truly advances America’s interests.
    The Editors, National Review, 5 Feb. 2025
  • In a North Hollywood podcast studio last week, Gill Tejada and his co-host, Boo Boo, trashed liberal shibboleths, like any good Trumpers.
    Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 29 Oct. 2024
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.

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Cite this Entry

“Chestnut.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/chestnut. Accessed 16 Nov. 2025.

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