1
as in sermon
a public speech usually by a member of the clergy for the purpose of giving moral guidance or uplift
last Sunday's homily was about being kind to your neighbors
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2
as in cliche
an idea or expression that has been used by many people
a TV movie filled with the usual hokey homilies about people triumphing over life's adversities
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Recent Examples of homily
His discipline quickly reasserted itself, and with it his store of homilies.
—
Peter Goldman, Newsweek, 29 Dec. 2024
When lodging is granted, festivities ensue with prayers, scripture readings and a brief homily about Jesus’ birth.
—Kamren Curiel, Los Angeles Times, 4 Dec. 2024
Of course there is, although thankfully there’s not too much heavy-handedness to the script’s inherent homilies about fake news and American authoritarianism not just being a byproduct of the 1930s.
—Chris Willman, Variety, 16 June 2024
Last week, the pontiff skipped his homily during Palm Sunday Mass.
—Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News, 31 Mar. 2024
See All Example Sentences for homily
Peter Goldman, Newsweek, 29 Dec. 2024
When lodging is granted, festivities ensue with prayers, scripture readings and a brief homily about Jesus’ birth.
—Kamren Curiel, Los Angeles Times, 4 Dec. 2024
Of course there is, although thankfully there’s not too much heavy-handedness to the script’s inherent homilies about fake news and American authoritarianism not just being a byproduct of the 1930s.
—Chris Willman, Variety, 16 June 2024
Last week, the pontiff skipped his homily during Palm Sunday Mass.
—Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News, 31 Mar. 2024
See All Example Sentences for homily
Recent Examples of Synonyms for homily
Noun
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Blige also connected jazz (scat singing, riffing on a phrase, improvising wordless lines), gospel (testifying akin to a preacher delivering a sermon) and hip hop traditions.—
Bob Gendron,
Chicago Tribune,
15 Mar. 2025
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Some filmmakers deliver sermons; Bong serves entertainment.—
Amy Nicholson,
Los Angeles Times,
7 Mar. 2025
Noun
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Many of the cliches about this compact, one-club city hold true.—
George Caulkin,
The Athletic,
13 Mar. 2025
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But my money’s on Baker, one of the world’s finest filmmakers who tells stories about characters Hollywood so often turns into cliches and leaves behind.—
Randy Myers,
The Mercury News,
25 Feb. 2025
Noun
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The film follows an ensemble of campers who are weary of platitudes about grief, and speak to one another from a place of radical honesty that is by turns heartbreaking and darkly hilarious, embracing irreverent humor as a cathartic means of self-expression.—
Addie Morfoot,
Variety,
19 Mar. 2025
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The members simply rounded up the usual suspects of platitudes.—
Vincent Turley,
Hartford Courant,
2 Mar. 2025
Noun
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The two-dimensional characters communicate in bromides; Lena’s fellow privates, who suffer from the laziest defining characteristics (coarse Southern gal, proper preacher’s daughter, New Yorker), are the worst offenders.—
Vikram Murthi,
IndieWire,
6 Dec. 2024
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In place of triumph-of-the-human-spirit bromides, though, what the book delivers is its own kind of cinema, harsh and true.—
New York Times,
New York Times,
8 July 2024
Noun
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Charismatic male mentors are a cinematic sacred cow, and there is a banality in hearing Isseks’s former underlings pile unconditional praise on him.—
Natalia Winkelman,
IndieWire,
31 Jan. 2025
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If Jude’s previous two fiction films were Molotov cocktails of indignation, his latest secretes a kind of scentless poison that gets at the banality with which social injustices are processed and rationalized.—
Beatrice Loayza,
New York Times,
21 Feb. 2025
Noun
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Chris Goettl, vice president of security product management at Ivanti, meanwhile, said that in the Midwest there’s a saying about March which goes in like a lion, out like a lamb.—
Davey Winder,
Forbes,
12 Mar. 2025
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Buy the rumor; sell the news, as the old saying goes.—
Ben Walsh,
The Atlantic,
8 Mar. 2025
Noun
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Murphy is now closing in on 200 senior appearances for Newcastle which isn’t bad, all things considered, and the last blissful month has only served to reinforce an old truism that the best teams are not always formed of the players who glitter most.—
George Caulkin,
The Athletic,
6 Jan. 2025
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This truism sits at the very heart of Republicans' fight over a grand budget deal.—
Axios,
Axios,
27 Feb. 2025
Noun
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The German proverb, roughly translated into English, means: Steady dripping caves the stone.—
Gabby Herzig,
The Athletic,
2 Jan. 2025
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But remember, where there’s fire, there’s smoke, which may be a reversal of the standard proverb but is highly relevant here.—
Bruce Y. Lee,
Forbes,
10 Jan. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Homily.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/homily. Accessed 24 Mar. 2025.
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