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
Leibovitz has always resisted pigeonholing.
—
Y-Jean Mun-Delsalle, Forbes.com, 13 Aug. 2025
Y-Jean Mun-Delsalle, Forbes.com, 13 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pigeonholing
Verb
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In a society that relies so heavily on categorizing people into a gender binary, targeting a young man’s masculinity can be a particularly painful and isolating experience.—
Ashleigh N. DeLuca,
Parents,
4 Sep. 2025
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One was based on hard-coding logical rules for categorizing inputs into symbols and then for manipulating those symbols to arrive at outputs.—
Jeremy Kahn,
Fortune,
3 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The Air Force took this case seriously under Project Blue Book, officially classifying it as ‘unexplained’ after finding no evidence of a hoax.—
Atharva Gosavi,
Interesting Engineering,
3 Sep. 2025
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In addition, tests have marked its accuracy at 88% in classifying wireless signal types.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
21 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Cadillac does, however, win back a few points for keeping some physical controls around instead of relegating everything to the touchscreen, even if some of the buttons look a bit chintzy.—
Bradley Iger,
Robb Report,
27 Aug. 2025
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Business leaders outside the technology bubble need to become more intimately involved with AI initiatives, versus relegating them to technical teams, who don’t necessarily fully connect the dots to business needs.—
Joe McKendrick,
Forbes.com,
25 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Thurman, 55, filed for divorce from Hawke in 2004, after separating the year before.—
Jen Juneau,
People.com,
1 Sep. 2025
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Joy and grief, there’s no separating the two, period.—
Erik Pedersen,
Oc Register,
30 Aug. 2025
Verb
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She was ultimately charged with one class B misdemeanor for electronic communications harassment, and two more class B misdemeanors for electronic disclosure of personal identifying information.—
Ryan Coleman September 2,
EW.com,
3 Sep. 2025
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The signs identifying Barn 44 as his racing stable, marked by his Kentucky Derby victories, were relocated to the back of a non-descript building that serves as the media center during Kentucky Derby race week.—
Stephanie Kuzydym,
The Courier-Journal,
3 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Pigeonholing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pigeonholing. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.
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