variants
also cliches
as in tropes
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
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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Recent Examples of clichés
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
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
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
Harvard may get a more empowering storyline than his florist-hairdresser-retail-clerk predecessors, but the humor is redolent of the same punishing cliches.
—Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 20 May 2026
Every Mother’s Day, politicians spout cliches celebrating all that moms do for our families.
—Nicole Varma, The Orlando Sentinel, 9 May 2026
The workforce warnings, in particular, are getting louder, with a mix of smart alerts and a cacophony of cliches.
—Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Fortune, 29 Apr. 2026
There’s a reason for the myriad cliches in baseball.
—Gabriel Burns, AJC.com, 15 Apr. 2026
Matching furniture sets and too-small rugs are living room cliches to avoid.
—Sarah Lyon, The Spruce, 13 Apr. 2026
Victoria Le, Oc Register, 29 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
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
Harvard may get a more empowering storyline than his florist-hairdresser-retail-clerk predecessors, but the humor is redolent of the same punishing cliches.
—Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 20 May 2026
Every Mother’s Day, politicians spout cliches celebrating all that moms do for our families.
—Nicole Varma, The Orlando Sentinel, 9 May 2026
The workforce warnings, in particular, are getting louder, with a mix of smart alerts and a cacophony of cliches.
—Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Fortune, 29 Apr. 2026
There’s a reason for the myriad cliches in baseball.
—Gabriel Burns, AJC.com, 15 Apr. 2026
Matching furniture sets and too-small rugs are living room cliches to avoid.
—Sarah Lyon, The Spruce, 13 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for clichés
Noun
-
In another Amsterdam photo, a pair of identical world globes, recalling Ghirri’s passion for cartography and atlases, rest on matching supports to conjure that oldest of surrealist tropes, a pair of staring eyes.—
James Quandt,
Artforum,
2 June 2026
-
Professional arcs not entirely aside, this is a romantic comedy, full of meet-cutes and related tropes, where love rules; no one’s got it, everyone’s looking for it.—
Television Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
1 June 2026
Noun
-
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
-
Most leaders can’t afford to wait weeks for insights that could inform their next move, and can revert to relying on generalizations to guide them as a result.—
Alex Cooper,
Fortune,
16 May 2026
Noun
-
The process is so slow that a City Council committee held a hearing earlier this month essentially to turn up the heat on administration officials, who offered no explanation for the molasses-like contracting process other than platitudes.—
The Editorial Board,
Chicago Tribune,
29 May 2026
-
The public backing from members of the squad for Carrick has been pronounced, beyond the usual platitudes of players supporting their manager.—
Laurie Whitwell,
New York Times,
24 May 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
-
One effect of this austerity and repression is to focus attention on Albee’s language, with its slippery banalities and barbs.—
Steven Winn,
San Francisco Chronicle,
3 Apr. 2026
-
As far back as the Victorian era, exchanging a few banalities was part of a veritable social code—a way of signaling both politeness and boundaries.—
Jeanne Ballion,
Vogue,
27 Dec. 2025
Noun
-
Kelly had sent models down the runway wearing anything from a watermelon bra top and matching headdress to a mini dress featuring golliwog embellishments in order to reclaim some of the most offensive stereotypes that were often birthed in the American south.—
Bianca Betancourt,
CNN Money,
2 June 2026
-
Yet cultural stereotypes continue to portray White athletes as less athletic, less gifted and less deserving of elite status.—
Bobby Burack OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
2 June 2026
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
-
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,
IEEE Spectrum,
7 May 2026
-
Canned Water Chestnuts Fresh water chestnuts, while hard to find, are sweeter and juicier than canned varieties, with a cleaner, more pronounced crunch.—
Katie Rosenhouse,
Southern Living,
6 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Clichés.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/clich%C3%A9s. Accessed 7 Jun. 2026.
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