chestnuts

plural of chestnut
as in clichés
an idea or expression that has been used by many people an op-ed piece that's offers nothing but warmed-over chestnuts for solving the city's financial woes

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

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.
Recent Examples of chestnuts Candied chestnuts and violets, dark chocolates, and pralines are the specialties at Giovanni Galli, on Corso di Porta Romana. — Emma Bocchi, Vogue, 21 Sep. 2026 There are a few old chestnuts that are sort of irresistible, sort of inevitable. — Quanta Magazine, 17 Sep. 2026 Truffles, chestnuts, and squash soon follow, popping up on menus around the city. — Laura Itzkowitz, Travel + Leisure, 21 Aug. 2026 There are also opportunities to savor white truffles and other regional food and wine specialties (such as mushrooms, chestnuts, cheeses, honey and wines) under a big tent with long tables and at restaurants. — Irene S. Levine, Forbes.com, 15 Aug. 2026 There are also some surviving large American chestnuts, some of which have heritable blight resistance. — Steve Strauss, The Conversation, 22 July 2026 An opening scene flashes back to a horrific family murder in which one of two surviving foster children is found in the basement filled with figures constructed from chestnuts. — Culture Critic, Los Angeles Times, 15 July 2026 Week 3 Add in pumpkin, tomatoes, chestnuts, bananas, and berries. — Emily Kay Votruba, EverydayHealth.com, 29 June 2026 In the medieval town of Belvì, men roast chestnuts—marroni—over an open fire in a frying pan the size of a swimming pool and then serve them to the crowd by shoveling them into troughs. — IEEE Spectrum, 7 May 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for chestnuts
Noun
  • The president used similar bromides in private calls to assuage allies, including Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson, before launching the war in February, according to people familiar with the conversations.
    — Vivian Salama, The Atlantic, 3 June 2026
  • While these songs might appear to be somewhat straightforward EBM that wear their politics on their latex sleeve, there’s a level of ambiguity at work that moves Kissing Luck Goodbye past its own bromides and into deeper artistic territory.
    — Sadie Sartini Garner, Pitchfork, 16 Apr. 2026
Noun
  • Diaz centers music as the emotional vehicle that provides a philosophical structure for the character tropes and in turn psychologically seduces the audience to internalize certain ideas of social dynamics.
    — Damaly Gonzalez, ARTnews.com, 30 Sep. 2026
  • Serious life moments aside, the show can’t resist treating these two as a classic sitcom couple and play up the requisite tropes.
    — Kevin Dolak, HollywoodReporter, 30 Sep. 2026
Noun
  • The third film in director Éric Rohmer’s series Comedies and Proverbs, Pauline at the Beach explores the emotions (and delusions) around summer love.
    — Air Mail, Air Mail, 20 June 2026
  • In Indonesian folklore, durian also often appears in proverbs and riddles.
    — JSTOR Daily, JSTOR Daily, 25 Mar. 2026
Noun
  • Hughes offered the usual interview platitudes and seemed to be pleased with how his team was playing.
    — Matt Reigle OutKick, FOXNews.com, 2 Oct. 2026
  • Because the story lines are facile fakes, because the characters are blanked out, the substance of relationships is reduced to dialogue of generalities and platitudes.
    — Richard Brody, New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2026
Noun
  • Then morning would come, with all the banalities that drew them apart.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 18 Aug. 2026
  • And even though access to such banalities may sound brain-deadening, and at best dull, some of the most famous people in the world are now live-streamers.
    — Brady Brickner-Wood, New Yorker, 12 Aug. 2026
Noun
  • Well, ‘It’s been emotional’ has become one of the British icon sayings of movie history, which is fantastic.
    — Jesse Whittock, Deadline, 3 Sep. 2026
  • As part of their annual Halloween decor drop, Anthropologie released Halloween bistro tile items that blend classic motifs and sayings with the Bistro Tile Collection’s Parisian style.
    — Claire Hoppe Norgaard, Better Homes & Gardens, 20 Aug. 2026
Noun
  • Spain’s success over the past five years has undermined many long-standing political-economic truisms.
    — Rogé Karma, The Atlantic, 1 June 2026
  • The play isn’t subtle; the final sequence leans hard on truisms about addiction and trauma, which are affecting but overly explicit.
    — Sheldon Pearce, New Yorker, 20 Feb. 2026
Noun
  • 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

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Chestnuts.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/chestnuts. Accessed 6 Oct. 2026.

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster