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
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This shift reminds us that dead metaphors aren’t always terminally dead.—
Rob Nixon,
Smithsonian,
23 Mar. 2018
Noun
-
And a week ago, Dario Amodei—the CEO of Anthropic, and Altman’s chief rival—made a similar analogy, likening the training of AI models to human evolution and day-to-day learning.—
Matteo Wong,
The Atlantic,
23 Feb. 2026
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More and more, Jackson seeks out biblical analogies and snaps them down like safety catches over the loose ends of his earlier life.—
Gail Sheehy,
Vanity Fair,
20 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
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Consider, for instance, the use of rhetorical figures such as metaphor or simile.—
Nino Letteriello,
Forbes.com,
22 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
Early critics have called it ‘compassionate,’ which might sound like a euphemism for treacly or didactic.—
Savannah Salazar,
Vulture,
20 Feb. 2026
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Some of the suspects try to minimize their actions with euphemisms or paraphrases; others do so with explanations that the prosecutors find utterly implausible.—
Richard Brody,
New Yorker,
19 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Dedication sifts through the turmoil and joy of Mirah’s life with an intimacy rarely obscured by obliquity or metaphor.—
Zach Schonfeld,
Pitchfork,
20 Feb. 2026
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This is false not just as reality but even as metaphor.—
John Williams,
The Atlantic,
20 Feb. 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 27 Feb. 2026.
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