Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A prearranged reply to a challenge, as from a guard or sentry; a password.
- n. A rallying cry: Let our watchword be freedom.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A word or short phrase to be communicated on challenge to the watch or sentinels in a camp; a password or signal by which friends can be known from enemies.
- n. Hence Any preconcerted indication or a direction eagerly watched for, as a signal for action.
- n. A word used as a motto, as expressive of a principle or rule of action; a maxim, byword, or rallying-cry.
- n. The call of a watchman or sentry as he goes his rounds.
Wiktionary
- n. a prearranged reply to the challenge of a sentry or a guard; a password or signal by which friends can be known from enemies
- n. a word used as a motto, as expressive of a principle or rule of action; a maxim, byword
- n. a rallying cry
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A word given to sentinels, and to such as have occasion to visit the guards, used as a signal by which a friend is known from an enemy, or a person who has a right to pass the watch from one who has not; a countersign; a password.
- n. A sentiment or motto; esp., one used as a rallying cry or a signal for action.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a secret word or phrase known only to a restricted group
- n. a slogan used to rally support for a cause
Etymologies
- From Middle English waccheword, morphologically as watch + word. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“His watchword is always duty; and he never forgets that the nation which lets its duty get on the opposite side to its interest is lost.”
Is McCain About to ‘Refine’ His Withdrawal Plan, Too? « Antiwar.com Blog
“I agree that we are treading on slippery ground, so my watchword is "post like a good food critic" i.e. what happened and where without getting into "terrible" and such as adjectives.”
“Their watchword is "All in" -- all in with everything they have, their savings, their property, their skill, the service of their hands, if necessary the service of their lives.”
“A watchword is the familiar code used by a sentinel to tell the approach of a friend.”
“Even worse, the Bushies traded integrity for incoherence as the McCain watchword.”
“What would you give to hear this miracle -- a bobolink calling his watchword through the night?”
“Their watchword was the constitution of 1861, which had been drawn up by their leaders; they demanded that it should be restored, and with it parliamentary government.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 "Austria, Lower" to "Bacon"
“Golden Bee wore ribbons studded with golden bees on their breasts, and their watchword was a sort of a "buzz-z-z," like the humming of a bee.”
“The end came in 1845, but his name has remained as a kind of watchword among the common people -- a synonym for rugged honesty, and bluff sincerity.”
“Revolution, when they offered to the world, as a palliation for the crime of rebellion, the same watchword which is now so prodigally used by every American tongue, and so basely and universally prostituted.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘watchword’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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word phrases
to have a look how word is used
and the plurala word, a word or two, a couple of words, word-artist, word base, word-based, word-bate, word battle, word-bearer, word-beat, word-blind, word blindness and 299 more...
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WF - nominal compounds (figurative)
An extensive list I have been working on for quite some time. Feel free to add more of the kind if you miss any.
brainstorming, upside, downside, goldplating, bikeshedding, mudslinging, downgrading, headhunter, streamlining, mainstreaming, gerrymandering, frontloading and 503 more...
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These words are about words.
words on words. yyep.
codex, folio, lexicon, tome, word stock, wordbook, wordlist, palaver, word index, argot, parlance, doublespeak and 68 more...
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Amalgamations
Words that have been smashed together.
keystone, touchstone, footprint, thunderhead, seesaw, textbook, leftovers, watchword, afterbirth, fieldwork, outcast, statesman and 148 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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As soon as I finish this chapter
x
procrastination, drily, rheumatism, rheum, suint, tiresome, wearisome, tiring, suboptimal, subpar, subprime, grange and 190 more...
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Politrix
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
vexillology, blowback, impunity, extraterritoriality, plenipotentiary, filibuster, pundit, jingoistic, gerrymander, swiftboat, espionage, ipsedixitism and 151 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3250 more...
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Magical moments
abracadabra, presto, open sesame, alakazam, incantation, spell, charm, chant, hocus pocus, legerdemain, occult, mystification and 24 more...
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hobbyhorses
words that have recently fascinated me.
hobby horse (noun)
1. a stick with a horse's head, or a rocking horse, ridden by children.
2. a figure of a horse, attached at the w...idiolect, boustrophedon, patavinity, ensorceled, cumyxaphily, formicary, dorp, insouciance, watchword, infarction, bibliolatry, deipnosophist and 1 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for watchword.
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