Word.ws English Dictionary

dog-whistling

dog-whistling noun: the act or habit of uttering phrases or expressions which is understood only by a narrow demographic.

Noun

dog-whistling

  1. (figuratively) The act or habit of uttering phrases or expressions which is understood only by a narrow demographic.
  2. (derogatory, sometimes) The act or habit of uttering a political allusion or comment whose significance is intended only to be recognized by a certain audience, particularly in relation to controversial or extreme viewpoints.

Questions about dog-whistling

What does dog-whistling mean?
Dog-whistling means the act or habit of uttering phrases or expressions which is understood only by a narrow demographic.
What part of speech is dog-whistling?
Dog-whistling is a noun.

Words near dog-whistling in the dictionary

  1. dog-weary
  2. dog-whelk
  3. dog-whelks
  4. dog-whistle politics
  5. dog-whistley
  6. dog-whistling
  7. dog-whistly
  8. doga
  9. dogaholic
  10. dogaholics
  11. dogal

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dog-whistling (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: “dog-whistling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dog-whistling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.