as in rhetoric
language marked by abstractions, jargon, euphemisms, and circumlocutions
instead of simply denying our request, the mayor's representative gave us a song and dance about legal issues and municipal liability
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of song and dance
Not his first blockbuster deal This isn’t Gore’s first time doing the song and dance of being traded.
—
Sportsday Staff, Dallas Morning News, 22 Jan. 2026
Just stop with this whole song and dance between Kuminga and Steve Kerr.
—Zach Harper, New York Times, 5 Jan. 2026
The Shakers, as they’ll eventually be named, channel the holy spirit via song and dance.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 26 Dec. 2025
New Year's Eve is just around the corner, and what's a more Nashville way to ring in 2026 than through song and dance?
—Audrey Gibbs, Nashville Tennessean, 26 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for song and dance
Sportsday Staff, Dallas Morning News, 22 Jan. 2026
Just stop with this whole song and dance between Kuminga and Steve Kerr.
—Zach Harper, New York Times, 5 Jan. 2026
The Shakers, as they’ll eventually be named, channel the holy spirit via song and dance.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 26 Dec. 2025
New Year's Eve is just around the corner, and what's a more Nashville way to ring in 2026 than through song and dance?
—Audrey Gibbs, Nashville Tennessean, 26 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for song and dance
Recent Examples of Synonyms for song and dance
Noun
-
Framed as a platform for addressing inequality, climate change and the rise of right-wing political movements, yet the rhetoric coming from it has raised questions in Washington and across the region about whether a more coordinated political counterweight to the United States is taking shape.—
Armando Regil Velasco,
FOXNews.com,
25 Apr. 2026
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People have been called pedants since the early modern period—pedante is a fifteenth-century Italian coinage for a professional teacher of Latin literature and rhetoric—but have been acting pedantically for millennia.—
Clare Bucknell,
The New York Review of Books,
25 Apr. 2026
Noun
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And the rigmarole of international travel is a very good reason.—
R. Eric Thomas,
Chicago Tribune,
18 Apr. 2026
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There is a lot of rigmarole there that is conveniently hidden when positing this as a common sense thing.—
Mikey O'Connell,
HollywoodReporter,
27 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Meaningless gobbledygook to an outsider, yet powerful to those who know how to wield those sounds properly.—
Noel Murray,
Vulture,
17 Oct. 2025
-
Bob Kring DeBary Congressional bill is full of greed The Great Big Beautiful Bill reads like 950 pages of of gobbledygook distilled into four words: Greedy, stingy, mean and short-sighted.—
Letters to the Editor,
The Orlando Sentinel,
2 July 2025
Noun
-
Name one clear next step, keep expectations realistic, and let momentum build through follow-through, not hype.—
Tarot.com,
Hartford Courant,
26 Apr. 2026
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Perhaps the most impressive element of the exercise—beyond the meatballs, which really do live up to the hype—is that the pop-up only lasted one night.—
Justin Fenner,
Robb Report,
25 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
And these worlds aren’t even real, just ones and zeros merged to form a network of communication that sometimes feels like incoherent gibberish.—
Brandon Kaipo Moningka,
Los Angeles Times,
8 Apr. 2026
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Legal gibberish Let’s start with those last two words.—
Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board,
The Orlando Sentinel,
29 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Driving the news: The statement was published only in English on the Facebook page of the Israeli Prime Minister's Office — potentially another case of double-talk by Netanyahu.—
Barak Ravid,
Axios,
27 Sep. 2024
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The GOP Senate candidate in Arizona, whose brand is a combative, never-back-down MAGA politics, has adopted a position on the issue that is nearly indistinguishable from that of double-talking Democrats.—
Rich Lowry,
National Review,
14 Apr. 2024
Cite this Entry
“Song and dance.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/song%20and%20dance. Accessed 26 Apr. 2026.
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