catchword
/ˈkæt͡ʃwɚd/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 1.36 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A word at the end of a book page that repeats the first word from the following page. (Such words served as aids to the bookbinder (to check rapidly for correct placement of leaves) and were also viewed by some readers as aids to smooth reading.)
noun
A word or expression repeated until it becomes representative of a particular group or time; a slogan or buzzword.
Example Sentences
- "Near-synonym: custos"
- "While he prayed he knelt on his red handkerchief and read above his breath from a thumb blackened prayerbook wherein catchwords were printed at the foot of every page."
- "One could give a long list of such intellectual fashions and catchwords which in the course of two or three generations have in turn dominated the thinking of the intellectual."
- "The war itself has several names, including "the famine war" (ḥarb al-majā'a) and seferberlik, a Turkish word, meaning "travel by land," that began its wartime career as a reference to "military conscription" but quickly became a catchword for all the calamities and suffering experienced by civilians."
Etymology
From catch + word.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈkæt͡ʃwɚd/
- British English: /ˈkat͡ʃwɜːd/