as in simile
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for catachresis
Noun
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No metaphors or similes or hyperbolic language needed here – your kids are next.—
Rob Gagnon,
Hartford Courant,
25 Mar. 2025 -
Her father was a scientist and worked for NASA, so her work, including The Body’s Question and Life on Mars, is infused with the cosmos and space and all these metaphors and similes tied to the most mysterious places in the universe.—
Lisa Wong Macabasco,
Vogue,
22 Feb. 2025
Noun
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The claim that euphemisms for death are somehow unique to Vietnamese culture is absurd in the extreme.—
Andrea Long Chu,
Vulture,
6 May 2025
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Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco have long received EU funds to ‘manage migration’ (a euphemism for preventing people from leaving their territories, often by force).—
Frey Lindsay,
Forbes.com,
19 Apr. 2025
Noun
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Psychological inoculation uses a vaccine analogy where exposing people to a weakened dose of the techniques used to produce falsehoods—and deconstructing and refuting them in advance—can help cultivate greater cognitive immunity to future misinformation.—
Sander van der Linden,
Time,
6 May 2025
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Driving a Lamborghini through Manhattan at 18 miles an hour in traffic is a waste… or insert your own analogy here.—
Adrian Bridgwater,
Forbes.com,
1 May 2025
Noun
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Here, instead, she’s swayed by a dead Diana softly squeezing her hand and kindly hinting — the dead Diana is an ace at tactful circumlocution — that now is the time to show a mourning nation some emotion.—
Tom Gliatto,
Peoplemag,
16 Nov. 2023
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By condensing Balzac’s opus to a few paragraphs, Barthelme was having a laugh not just at his predecessor’s genteel circumlocution—his tendency to describe buildings and manufacturing procedures and family trees in lavish detail—but also at the conventions of novelistic mimesis itself.—
Giles Harvey,
The New York Review of Books,
23 Apr. 2020
Noun
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Cats, however, may turn out to be the canaries in the coalmines — pardon the mixed metaphor.—
Jan Ellen Spiegel,
Hartford Courant,
24 Dec. 2024
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Cats, however, may turn out to be the canaries in the coalmines — pardon the mixed metaphor.—
Jan Ellen Spiegel,
Hartford Courant,
24 Dec. 2024
Noun
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Halbreich told me that prominent art institutions are already using code words, like community, to talk about diversity.—
Rachel Corbett,
Vulture,
10 Apr. 2025
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These traffickers often use code words and emojis to avoid being detected by law enforcement or censored by platform guidelines.—
Rachel Hale,
USA Today,
3 Apr. 2025
Noun
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Without that essential kernel of referentiality, there can be no metaphor at all.—
Andrea Long Chu,
Vulture,
6 May 2025
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As for Bayern, today’s result against RB Leipzig was a good metaphor for the Rekordmeister’s season.—
Manuel Veth,
Forbes.com,
3 May 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Catachresis.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/catachresis. Accessed 19 May. 2025.
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