variants
also cliche
as in stereotyped
used or heard so often as to be dull
a cliché tale of lust and betrayal among the fabulously rich
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
variants
also cliche
as in generalization
an idea or expression that has been used by many people
try to write a love story without resorting to well-worn clichés
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of cliché
The Editors Of Artnews, ARTnews.com, 10 June 2026
But instead of submitting to those very human doubts, Korda took the championship one shot at a time, as the cliche says.
—Gabby Herzig, New York Times, 8 June 2026
Wednesday’s Game 1 of runs epitomized the cliche of basketball.
—Fiifi Frimpong, New York Daily News, 4 June 2026
But for Maria Poveromo, a soon-to-be Woodbridge High School graduate, some academic cliches still ring true.
—Victoria Le, Oc Register, 29 May 2026
This setup could be cliche territory, but not in this telling.
—Literary Hub, 28 May 2026
Club Kid runs right up to and then darts around so many potential cliches in a way that’s really satisfying.
—Rachel Handler, Vulture, 26 May 2026
The writing and the acting boldly flirt with cliche and caricature, which, as the show is about 100% pastiche, drawn from films more than three-quarters of a century old, could scarcely be avoided and isn’t really a problem.
—Television Critic, Los Angeles Times, 25 May 2026
Sure, Josh’s seasonal arc becomes finding a new mate before the next hibernation, but the episodic stories soon settle into all-too-familiar rom-com cliches, without enough contrast from the animal’s POV to provide much enlightenment for the human audience.
—Ben Travers, IndieWire, 22 May 2026
Noun
In this section, artists Wendy Red Star, Omar Victor Diop, Yuki Kihara, Frida Orupabo, and Dimakatso Mathopa mine the tropes and cliches borne of these images, and through satire and recontextualization, offer works that center their own empowerment and subjectivity.
—The Editors Of Artnews, ARTnews.com, 10 June 2026
But instead of submitting to those very human doubts, Korda took the championship one shot at a time, as the cliche says.
—Gabby Herzig, New York Times, 8 June 2026
Wednesday’s Game 1 of runs epitomized the cliche of basketball.
—Fiifi Frimpong, New York Daily News, 4 June 2026
But for Maria Poveromo, a soon-to-be Woodbridge High School graduate, some academic cliches still ring true.
—Victoria Le, Oc Register, 29 May 2026
This setup could be cliche territory, but not in this telling.
—Literary Hub, 28 May 2026
Club Kid runs right up to and then darts around so many potential cliches in a way that’s really satisfying.
—Rachel Handler, Vulture, 26 May 2026
The writing and the acting boldly flirt with cliche and caricature, which, as the show is about 100% pastiche, drawn from films more than three-quarters of a century old, could scarcely be avoided and isn’t really a problem.
—Television Critic, Los Angeles Times, 25 May 2026
Sure, Josh’s seasonal arc becomes finding a new mate before the next hibernation, but the episodic stories soon settle into all-too-familiar rom-com cliches, without enough contrast from the animal’s POV to provide much enlightenment for the human audience.
—Ben Travers, IndieWire, 22 May 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cliché
Adjective
-
My wife lowers her gaze as if tired, rubbing the side of her glass with her fingers.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
11 June 2026
-
The first step is to avoid the tired trap of pitting a liberal arts education against a technical or practical one.—
Jamie Merisotis,
Forbes.com,
11 June 2026
Noun
-
Teenagers are tested on more advanced skills, such as making generalizations from a reading passage and comparing information from charts and graphs.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
10 June 2026
-
Of course, if the AI does generalize, the difficulty is that the AI generalizations about mental health might be off base.—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes.com,
1 June 2026
Adjective
-
Maybe so, but think of how badly Congress had stated those hackneyed ideas.—
Jill Lepore,
New Yorker,
4 May 2026
-
While not exactly a feminist screed, the script grants nary a free pass to the glut of hackneyed gender conventions in the golden-age canon without at least cracking a joke.—
Naveen Kumar,
Variety,
21 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
This isn’t a call for platitudes.—
Amy Eliza Wong,
MSNBC Newsweek,
12 Nov. 2025
-
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
Adjective
-
Mizrahi was the first major fashion designer Target collaborated with, starting back in 2002, creating a high-low fashion playbook that has since become commonplace.—
Hilary Milnes,
Vogue,
15 June 2026
-
At the time of the country’s founding, the church was experiencing an ebb tide, as the rejection of organized religion became more commonplace.—
Michael Luo,
New Yorker,
14 June 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 mind/body divide is another truism Bolton wants to invert.—
Laird Borrelli-Persson,
Vogue,
3 May 2026
Noun
-
Maclean’s work traffics in deep fakes and glitch aesthetics, rainbow cuteness and the tropes of pulp—but these are set against violent dystopias and a world of cruelties borne, especially, by women (see her 2018 video Make Me Up as an example).—
Eugenie Brinkema,
ARTnews.com,
14 June 2026
-
While this might rankle a certain type of science fiction reader who expects rigorous world building and a straightforward plot, Unferth’s playfulness injects new life into some trusty old tropes that have calcified into clichés.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
11 June 2026
Noun
-
The banality of her words about Ma Binney was terrible.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
18 Mar. 2026
-
Using the book as a conscious tool of image-building is a more recent phenomenon, however, leading critic Jaime Fuller to lament the banality of such tomes in his 2019 Literary Hub article.—
Dan Walters,
Mercury News,
4 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Cliché.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/clich%C3%A9. Accessed 17 Jun. 2026.
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