dog whistle
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.85 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
2
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
That which is understood only by a narrow demographic.
noun
A political allusion or comment that only a certain audience is intended to note and recognize the significance of; particularly in relation to controversial or extreme viewpoints.
Derogatory
Example Sentences
- "2012, 22 March, Scott Tobias, AV Club Cabin Boyhttp://www.avclub.com/articles/cabin-boy,71269/ But like a lot of these cult comedies, Cabin Boy was a dog whistle few could hear, and critics and audiences dismissed it quickly and forcefully: It left theaters with grosses south of $4 million and earned Elliott a “Worst New Star” Razzie nomination, no doubt for the adenoidal voice common to all fancy lads."
- "On the lips of Premier Mike Harris, the term ‘special interest’ has the tone of epithet. It’s an all-purpose dog-whistle that those fed up with feminists, minorities, the undeserving poor hear loud and clear."
- "Putting “globalist” in quotes suggests a jest or in-joke of sorts, so it’s at least possible this wasn’t intended as some kind of anti-Semitic dog whistle."
- "But just as the usual dog-whistle article in The New York Times about the recently elected incoming government warning that "the far-right government that will soon take power ... marks a qualitative and alarming break with all the other governments in Israel's 75-year history" (only right-wing government are alarming) – and thus resonated with American administration officials."
- "But it was in the waning days of the campaign that the sheriff’s use of images of billionaire George Soros, a donor to many liberal causes and a target of frequent attacks from the right, sparked a charge from Democratic officials and others that Hodgson was using a “dog whistle” of antisemitism, a claim the sheriff’s campaign angrily rejected."
- "“Many of them are coming from contexts where they associate socialism, or anything close to it, with what they left behind and why they left,” Bustamante explains. “I think Republicans have been very savvy – really ruthless – in exploiting that.” / Or as Regalado, a Republican, puts it: “It’s our dog whistle. And it works every time.”"