Word.ws English Dictionary

Chandlerism

Chandlerism noun: a passage of writing or dialogue that uses vivid and lyrical metaphors or similes, characteristic of the work of writer Raymond Chandler.

Noun

Chandlerism (plural Chandlerisms)

  1. A passage of writing or dialogue that uses vivid and lyrical metaphors or similes, characteristic of the work of writer Raymond Chandler.
    • As Rigby Reardon, Steve Martin easily mimics the patented Hollywood tough guy of the period, dangling a cigarette from one side of his mouth while distorting a Chandlerism from the other.1982, The Review of the news, volume 18
    • I'm especially struck with the way you turn the Chandlerism, the colorful unlikely metaphor or simile, into legitimate novelistic indication of character, rather than trick writing for its own sake.1999 Anthony Boucher, letter to Kenneth Millar, published in Tom Nolan (1999) Ross Macdonald: a biography, p114

Forms of Chandlerism

pluralChandlerisms

Origin of Chandlerism

From Chandler + -ism, after writer Raymond Chandler.

Questions about Chandlerism

What does Chandlerism mean?
Chandlerism means a passage of writing or dialogue that uses vivid and lyrical metaphors or similes, characteristic of the work of writer Raymond Chandler.
What part of speech is Chandlerism?
Chandlerism is a noun.
What is the plural of Chandlerism?
The plural of Chandlerism is Chandlerisms.

Words near Chandlerism in the dictionary

  1. chandleresses
  2. Chandlerian
  3. chandleries
  4. chandlering
  5. Chandlerish
  6. Chandlerism
  7. Chandlerisms
  8. chandlerly
  9. chandlers
  10. Chandlers Creek
  11. chandlery

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Chandlerism (page history and authors). 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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Cite this entry: “Chandlerism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chandlerism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.