conventional wisdom

Definition of conventional wisdomnext
as in party line
opinions or beliefs that are held or accepted by most people Conventional wisdom in Hollywood says that a movie can't succeed unless it stars a famous actor or actress.

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of conventional wisdom One of the first clues that the conventional wisdom about willpower was wrong came in 2015. Francine Russo, Scientific American, 28 Mar. 2026 Both Allen and Raye challenge the listener to keep up with the plot twists, defying all the conventional wisdom about the audience’s attention span these days. Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 27 Mar. 2026 The unpredictability of campaigns means that conventional wisdom about frontrunners and inevitability frequently proves incorrect. Los Angeles Times, 25 Mar. 2026 That may become increasingly common going forward, as conventional wisdom on the essentiality of coaching continuity—and the fear of roster attrition—has been recast by the yearly churn every team now faces in the transfer portal era. Daniel Libit, Sportico.com, 12 Mar. 2026 See All Example Sentences for conventional wisdom
Recent Examples of Synonyms for conventional wisdom
Noun
  • Republicans are preparing a plan to fund ice and to fund a CBP on a party line vote through a process known as reconciliation, Democrats had the standoff to demand policy changes that never happened here.
    CBS News, CBS News, 12 Apr. 2026
  • The Nassau County executive, who has no serious opposition in the GOP primary for governor, was denied funding by the state Campaign Finance Board by a 4-3 party line vote because his running mate failed to file required paperwork.
    Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News, 31 Mar. 2026
Noun
  • UniFlex enables efficient cross-scenario task generalization and imitation learning.
    Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 9 Apr. 2026
  • Unlike vision and language, robotics lacks large, diverse datasets that span tasks, environments, and embodiments, thus limiting both scalability and generalization.
    IEEE Spectrum, IEEE Spectrum, 6 Mar. 2026
Noun
  • In the early 2000s, Sears began to use its website — the new iteration of its catalog — to help pioneer the now-commonplace practices of buying goods online and picking them up in store.
    Domenica Bongiovanni, USA Today, 15 Apr. 2026
  • By the time Szeemann was invited to organize two consecutive installments of the Venice Biennale (in 1999 and 2001), the criticism of curators’ assuming the role of meta-artists, in Szeemann’s case with quasi-shamanistic aspirations, had become a commonplace.
    Daniel Birnbaum, Artforum, 2 Apr. 2026
Noun
  • Winton, the class clown and semi-pariah who fits the stereotype of the clingy, maladjusted product of a broken home.
    Jean Garnett, New Yorker, 18 Apr. 2026
  • But stereotypes about tiger moms and math nerds aside, education has been central to Asia’s economic rise, making the stakes especially high.
    Catherine Thorbecke, Boston Herald, 18 Apr. 2026
Noun
  • Eventually, people could not resist returning to their lives, to routines more comfortable than standing in the streets with the sun glaring in your eyes, squinting up to check the position of snipers on a roof, or working with cramping fingers sewing your tenth mask of the night.
    Hanif Abdurraqib, New Yorker, 17 Apr. 2026
  • Anti-war activists and those who oppose Pahlavi describe a climate of fear that has led some to notify police and change their routines.
    Adam Geller, Los Angeles Times, 16 Apr. 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Conventional wisdom.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/conventional%20wisdom. Accessed 21 Apr. 2026.

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