as in categorizing
disapproving
to unfairly think of or describe (someone or something) as belonging to only a certain category
She likes to perform different types of music because she doesn't want to be pigeonholed.
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Recent Examples of pigeonholing
McCurdy cautions against classifying Holiday as a blues singer and pigeonholing her into an age and culture.
—
Daniella Walsh, Oc Register, 21 Mar. 2026
The researchers, led by Arne Güllich of RPTU Kaiserlautern-Landau in Germany, noted that prodigies often specialized in a single discipline, pigeonholing themselves in a particular field early in life.
—Jake Angelo, Fortune, 9 Jan. 2026
The broader appeal and usefulness of the Dashaway eCT are just too dramatic to dedicate more time pigeonholing himself into a restrictive niche.
—New Atlas, 28 Oct. 2025
Leibovitz has always resisted pigeonholing.
—Y-Jean Mun-Delsalle, Forbes.com, 13 Aug. 2025
Daniella Walsh, Oc Register, 21 Mar. 2026
The researchers, led by Arne Güllich of RPTU Kaiserlautern-Landau in Germany, noted that prodigies often specialized in a single discipline, pigeonholing themselves in a particular field early in life.
—Jake Angelo, Fortune, 9 Jan. 2026
The broader appeal and usefulness of the Dashaway eCT are just too dramatic to dedicate more time pigeonholing himself into a restrictive niche.
—New Atlas, 28 Oct. 2025
Leibovitz has always resisted pigeonholing.
—Y-Jean Mun-Delsalle, Forbes.com, 13 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pigeonholing
Verb
-
In these years, children are so good at categorizing, memorizing, and imagining that passionate time travel comes easily.—
Elena Megalos,
Longreads,
31 Mar. 2026
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The town clerk was commended by the Broward state attorney for excellence for updating, electronically scanning and categorizing town files after much neglect.—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board,
Sun Sentinel,
31 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Whether the law survives looming legal challenges—rooted in a 1933 state Supreme Court ruling classifying income as property—remains an open question.—
Catherina Gioino,
Fortune,
3 Apr. 2026
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By classifying sports betting as a public health issue and imposing rigid federal standards, the proposal also significantly limits the autonomy of the states, which have been primarily responsible for the legalization and regulation of this sector since 2018.—
Cláudia Nunes,
The Orlando Sentinel,
2 Apr. 2026
Verb
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The governorship was also open in 2010, and as is so often the case in this state, that marquee race seized the attention of the media and public, relegating the race for attorney general to the inside pages of newspapers and the dirt-track political circuit.—
Steve Bousquet,
Sun Sentinel,
4 Apr. 2026
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What more could Long Rife have accomplished in a world that has pushed women’s basketball to the front, instead of relegating it to a sideshow?—
Joseph Dycus,
Mercury News,
28 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Some omelets are made lighter by separating the yolks and whites, beating up the latter, and folding in the former.—
Jeffrey Steingarten,
Vogue,
5 Apr. 2026
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Adept at separating the unseen from the seen, Lemann here chronicles his family’s accumulation of wealth, whatever the moral costs or compromises, and their subsequent acculturation and partial deracination.—
Brenda Wineapple,
The New York Review of Books,
4 Apr. 2026
Verb
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The site functions as a public service that allows the creator to stay mentally engaged while identifying trends and connections between stories that might otherwise go unnoticed by those too busy to consume multiple news sources.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
5 Apr. 2026
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Spring weather on the Front Range can be invigorating, but for Paton and Payton, April beauty is identifying a mid-round pick who becomes an impact player.—
Parker Gabriel,
Denver Post,
5 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Pigeonholing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pigeonholing. Accessed 9 Apr. 2026.
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