1
as in slogans
an attention-getting word or phrase used to publicize something (as a campaign or product)
we knew that their claim of giving "the best deal in town" was just a shibboleth
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
2
as in cliches
an idea or expression that has been used by many people
there's a lot of truth in the shibboleth that if you give some people an inch, they'll take a mile
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shibboleths
Noun
-
Yankees exceptionalism now exists not on the field, but in the team store — on slogans and souvenirs, not titles and trophies.—
Brendan Kuty,
New York Times,
10 Oct. 2025 -
Campus protesters in the United States unwisely adopted slogans that were open to misinterpretation.—
Hussein Ibish,
The Atlantic,
7 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
New novels are rightly praised for breaking with traditional forms and criticized for turning to stale formulas and cliches.—
Nathaniel Moore
September 10,
Literary Hub,
10 Sep. 2025
-
Just really not going to sit here and give some cliches.—
Bill Plunkett,
Oc Register,
6 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
Again banners give way to LGBTQ flags and anti-Elon Musk bumper stickers in Marin County, where opposition to Prop 50 is much harder to find.—
Bloomberg,
Mercury News,
15 Oct. 2025
-
O’Neal’s push into the entertainment space via Wasserman follows other hoops stars making significant forays into film and TV, including launching their own production banners.—
Etan Vlessing,
HollywoodReporter,
14 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
My first true attempts at poetry were self-guided, painfully rhymed, drenched in abstractions and exhausted platitudes.—
Via Scribner,
Literary Hub,
6 Oct. 2025
-
His answers, typically, differ by just a few words and a few platitudes.—
Noah White,
Miami Herald,
3 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Blending thriller, drama and romance tropes coated in an overall ironic tone, the film marks the directorial debut of Rampoldi, who is a prominent Italian screenwriter.—
Nick Vivarelli,
Variety,
13 Oct. 2025
-
Most women fall somewhere in between those two tropes, and for years feminists like Strauss have been working to do away with that false binary.—
Nicole Fallert,
USA Today,
10 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
There is an outright rejection of bromides that would give us some conclusion of reassurance.—
Richard Newby,
HollywoodReporter,
30 Sep. 2025
-
Incidents of such poisoning saw a sharp decline when the Food and Drug Administration phased out the use of bromides in pharmaceuticals between the mid 70s and late 1980s.—
Mary Walrath-Holdridge,
USA Today,
13 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
Written by Noah Oppenheim, Bigelow’s real-time thriller about the banalities and actualities of a fictional-in-premise-only nuclear attack on the United States is Netflix’s best horse in the race at the Oscars this year.—
Ryan Lattanzio,
IndieWire,
19 Sep. 2025
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.
Cite this Entry
“Shibboleths.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shibboleths. Accessed 17 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share