Word.ws English Dictionary

catchphrase

catchphrase noun: a repeated expression, often originating in popular culture.

Noun

catchphrase (plural catchphrases)

  1. A repeated expression, often originating in popular culture.
    • Frequently, catch phrases are not, in the grammarians' sense, phrases at all, but sentences. Catch phrases, like the closely linked proverbial sayings, are self-contained, as, obviously, clichés are too. Catch phrases are usually more pointed and ‘human’ than clichés, although the former sometimes...2003 [1985], Eric Partridge, “Introduction to the First Editon”, in Paul Beale, editor, A Dictionary of Catch Phrases, 2nd edition, Routledge, →ISBN
    • For Tigger, he created a slight lisp and laugh, crediting his British wife with Tigger's "TTFN" catchprase - "ta-ta for now", itself coming from BBC radio comedy It's That Man Again.2005 May 14, “Disney's Tigger voice dies at 82”, in BBC News website
  2. A signature phrase of a particular person or group.
    • Instead, bro country songs string together a formulaic subset of tropes about beer sipping, truck driving, sunglasses wearing, unpaved roads, and tanned girls in shorts, typically building to a predictable catchphrase singsong chorus.2018, Bill C. Malone, Tracey E. W. Laird, Country Music USA, University of Texas Press, →ISBN, page 547

catchphrase meaning in Hindi, Malayalam and Arabic

catchphrase in Hindi

a repeated expression
सूत्रवाक्य sūtravākya, तकिया-कलाम takiyā-kalām

catchphrase in Malayalam

saying, quotation, quote slogan
ആകർഷകവാക്യം, ആവർത്തിച്ചുച്ചരിക്കുന്ന ശെെലി, സൂക്തം, സൂക്തി, പഴമൊഴി, മൂതുര

catchphrase in Arabic

a repeated expression
شِعار šiʕār

Examples of catchphrase in a sentence

  • A TV commercial blared in the background, repeating the brand's catchphrase: "This is not your father's Oldsmobile — this is the new generation of Olds!"
  • According to reproductive-rights leaders and political analysts, the answer is not as tidy or triumphant as the catchphrase.
  • Derek Shepherd for 11 seasons, Insta-ed a close-up of his masked face, captioning it with one of his catchphrases.

All 11 example sentences with catchphrase

Synonyms of catchphrase

Forms of catchphrase

pluralcatchphrases
alternative formcatch phrase
alternative formcatch-phrase

Plural of catchphrase: catchphrases

Origin of catchphrase

From catch + phrase, from the notion that the phrase will catch in the mind of the user.

Questions about catchphrase

What does catchphrase mean?
Catchphrase means a repeated expression, often originating in popular culture.
What is catchphrase in Hindi?
Catchphrase in Hindi is सूत्रवाक्य (sūtravākya), तकिया-कलाम (takiyā-kalām). See Catchphrase meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is catchphrase?
Catchphrase is a noun.
What is the plural of catchphrase?
The plural of catchphrase is catchphrases.

Words near catchphrase in the dictionary

  1. catchmenting
  2. catchments
  3. catchoo
  4. catchpennies
  5. catchpenny
  6. catchphrase
  7. catchphrases
  8. catchpit
  9. catchpits
  10. catchplate
  11. catchplates

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: catchphrase (page history and authors); catchphrase (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-catchphrase.wav.

Cite this entry: “catchphrase.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/catchphrase. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.