as in dead metaphor
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Recent Examples of code word
In the 21st century, however, historians mistook the code word for a code name and gave the pretexts their unhistorical handle.
—
Ken Hughes, The Conversation, 24 Nov. 2025
Was there literally a code word?
—Benjamin Siegel, ABC News, 21 Oct. 2025
Greater Manchester Police had declared PLATO – a national code word used when police deploy armed officers across the force to the scene of an attack, CNN understands.
—Peter Wilkinson, CNN Money, 2 Oct. 2025
So, the vertices that are indexing positions of my code word.
—Quanta Magazine, 7 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for code word
Ken Hughes, The Conversation, 24 Nov. 2025
Was there literally a code word?
—Benjamin Siegel, ABC News, 21 Oct. 2025
Greater Manchester Police had declared PLATO – a national code word used when police deploy armed officers across the force to the scene of an attack, CNN understands.
—Peter Wilkinson, CNN Money, 2 Oct. 2025
So, the vertices that are indexing positions of my code word.
—Quanta Magazine, 7 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for code word
Recent Examples of Synonyms for code word
Noun
-
Many of our emotion terms are references to states of the body—we’re downcast, bent out of shape, head over heels, shaken up, down in the mouth—which have slowly rigidified into dead metaphor.—
Nikhil Krishnan,
The New Yorker,
1 Aug. 2022
-
This shift reminds us that dead metaphors aren’t always terminally dead.—
Rob Nixon,
Smithsonian,
23 Mar. 2018
Noun
-
But the analogy fails for one simple reason.—
Erwin Chemerinsky,
Mercury News,
18 Feb. 2026
-
That really was a good analogy for me.—
Outside Online,
Outside Online,
18 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Along with another allusion to his quip about Lucien’s death, that simile establishes the Anglo-Irish author as a terrifying counter-example of homosexual exposure.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
2 Feb. 2026
-
Consider, for instance, the use of rhetorical figures such as metaphor or simile.—
Nino Letteriello,
Forbes.com,
22 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
At the same time, because the Soviet state refused to distinguish Jewish victims killed as Jews from the totality of civilian losses during the war, the euphemism ends up naming what it was designed to erase.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
13 Feb. 2026
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The gloves are off, the language is blunter, and the patience for euphemism is gone.—
Seth Abramovitch,
HollywoodReporter,
6 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Kendrick Lamar’s 2025 Super Bowl halftime show used a variety of costumes and props as metaphors for America's ongoing racial and political divisions.—
Jamie L. LaReau,
USA Today,
15 Feb. 2026
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For Manuel, the moral universe of the golf course — as well as the game itself — functions as an underlying metaphor for the Philippines’ cycles of political stasis.—
Patrick Brzeski,
HollywoodReporter,
14 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
But in terms of its actual content, the statement was pretty thin gruel, bristling with public relations-style circumlocution and vagueness.—
Business Columnist,
Los Angeles Times,
27 Jan. 2026
-
Here, instead, she’s swayed by a dead Diana softly squeezing her hand and kindly hinting — the dead Diana is an ace at tactful circumlocution — that now is the time to show a mourning nation some emotion.—
Tom Gliatto,
Peoplemag,
16 Nov. 2023
Cite this Entry
“Code word.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/code%20word. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.
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