as in dead metaphor
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Recent Examples of code word
But electability is neither a code word for, nor tantamount to, white-male-ness.
—
Jonathan Chait, The Atlantic, 5 Feb. 2026
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
Jonathan Chait, The Atlantic, 5 Feb. 2026
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
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This shift reminds us that dead metaphors aren’t always terminally dead.—
Rob Nixon,
Smithsonian,
23 Mar. 2018
Noun
-
At one point, Lennon was musing about his belief in reincarnation, and enumerating some of his past lives and identities, when Ono made a blunt analogy.—
Kelefa Sanneh,
New Yorker,
4 May 2026
-
Many of those players were as tough as ring-shank nails, to borrow another carpentry analogy.—
Tom Krasovic,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
4 May 2026
Noun
-
Dryden’s famous simile, from La Fontaine’s own century, likens a translator who copies too closely to a man dancing on ropes with fettered legs: careful, precise, but never graceful.—
Jan Steyn,
The Dial,
10 Mar. 2026
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Salazar-Thompson’s witty script — packed with hilarious metaphors and similes (like comparing a woman’s firm grip on her purse to that of a two-toed sloth on a branch) — make for a consistently amusing trip back in time.—
Pam Kragen,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
9 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Special military operation is Russia’s official euphemism for the country’s invasion of Ukraine.—
Ashley Belanger,
ArsTechnica,
30 Apr. 2026
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Discussing why people use euphemisms online prepares children to pause and ask questions when unfamiliar terms appear.—
Sharlette A. Kellum,
The Conversation,
6 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
This is not a metaphor dropped into a chapter and abandoned.—
Nia Bowers,
USA Today,
8 May 2026
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Anyone who seeks out career advice (in any field) is destined to get bombarded with metaphors.—
Dana Harris-Bridson,
IndieWire,
8 May 2026
Noun
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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 13 May. 2026.
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