groaners

noun

plural of groaner
as in clichés
an idea or expression that has been used by many people the play's dialogue featured all of the groaners that seem to be de rigueur for any dysfunctional-family drama

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

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 groaners Those pacing blips aren’t the only groaners. — Greg Evans, Deadline, 15 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for groaners
  1. sayings
  2. truisms
  3. tropes
  4. platitudes
  5. bromides
  6. banalities
  7. chestnuts
Noun
  • The next three chapters offer an anthology of sayings from rabbis who were active in the early centuries of the Common Era, including Hillel and Johanan ben Zakkai, among many other tannaim.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 July 2026
  • Where the most hopelessly corny sayings are painstakingly stitched into the equivalent of cloth graph paper by women who believe in the sayings and give the plaques to people who do not believe in the sayings.
    — Padgett Powell, Harpers Magazine, 30 June 2026
Definition of sayings
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
Definition of truisms
Noun
  • Though the familiar tropes of YA storytelling exist throughout, the series engages with the genre’s conventions earnestly and with sincerity, says Halsall.
    — Lexy Perez, HollywoodReporter, 6 Aug. 2026
  • The tropes that conceive of Africa, a 54-nation continent, as a tragic problem to be solved.
    — Tamerra Griffin, New York Times, 4 Aug. 2026
Definition of tropes
Noun
  • At last week’s meeting, though, Warsh spoke largely in platitudes and generalizations.
    — John Cassidy, New Yorker, 3 Aug. 2026
  • Leaders must understand grief's unique, individual nature, avoiding assumptions or platitudes.
    — Mena Mirhom, Forbes.com, 29 July 2026
Definition of platitudes
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
Definition of bromides
Noun
  • And even though access to such banalities may sound brain-deadening, and at best dull, some of the most famous people in the world are now live-streamers.
    — Brady Brickner-Wood, New Yorker, 12 Aug. 2026
  • For all the women looking up at me to think of me not as a crying heap on a toilet whose baby never latched but as someone who found meaning in all of our daily banalities.
    — Danielle Parker, CBS News, 4 Aug. 2026
Definition of banalities
Noun
  • There are also some surviving large American chestnuts, some of which have heritable blight resistance.
    — Steve Strauss, The Conversation, 22 July 2026
  • Mature trees donate an encyclopedia of species, including the regional pines and chestnuts planted on instruction of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria in the 1700s.
    — Nielsen Dinwoodie, Forbes.com, 20 July 2026
Definition of chestnuts

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groaner
groaners
groaning
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Cite this Entry

“Groaners.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/groaners. Accessed 14 Aug. 2026.

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