maplewash
maplewash verb: the misleading use of Canadian symbols, claims, or associations to exaggerate the Canadian origin, ownership, content, or character of a product, business, or service.
Verb
maplewash (third-person singular simple present maplewashes, present participle maplewashing, simple past and past participle maplewashed)
- the misleading use of Canadian symbols, claims, or associations to exaggerate the Canadian origin, ownership, content, or character of a product, business, or service.
- Following a national poll, Canada’s 2025 word of the year is “maplewash,” defined as the deceptive practice of making things appear more Canadian than they actually are.2025 December 17, Maegen Kulchar, “Queen's University helps to determine Canada's first official word of the year”, in Global The Kingston Whig Standard
- CED prefers the more general “maplewash”.2025 December 13, Mark Liberman, “Maplewashing”, in Language Log
- the idealized or selective portrayal of Canada, its institutions, or its history, especially one that obscures wrongdoing or social problems and presents Canada as morally superior to other countries.
- That's why we should be careful not to maplewash history when retelling it.2016, “maplewashing”, in Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles
Examples of maplewash in a sentence
- If there’s one thing we don’t need to maplewash, it’s the Canadian English language: it’s already a uniquely Canadian combination […]2025 December 12, John Chew, “2025 Canadian Word of the Year is “Maplewash””, in Society for Canadian English:
- In the latest SHuSH newsletter, Ken Whyte discusses one of the most cynical and blatant attempts to “Maplewash” US product as 100% home-grown Canadian.2025 October 19, Nicholas, “Printed Maplewash from Random Penguin “Canada””, in Quotulatiousness:
- all made in the US—often from Canadian seeds, which they use to maplewash their branding.2025 July 11, Mike Takasaki, “66. Who's Knocking it out of the Ballpark?”, in The Plate Cleaner:
- companies can use them to “Maplewash” your grocery shopping.2025 April 12, CanCon, “Explaining "Made in Canada" vs "Product of Canada" vs Everything Else”, in CanCon:
Forms of maplewash
| third-person singular present | maplewashes |
|---|---|
| present participle | maplewashing |
| past participle | maplewashed |
| past | maplewashed |
| alternative form | maple-wash |
| alternative form | maple wash |
Origin of maplewash
From maple + -wash / ˈmā-pəl-ˌwȯsh / From the Canadian maple leaf as a national emblem. Formed on the pattern of greenwash and whitewash. The commercial sense most closely parallels greenwash; the older historical and political sense also draws upon whitewash. Earliest known attestations date from 2016; the coinage is commonly, but not conclusively, attributed to Canadian writer Luke Savage.
Questions about maplewash
- What does maplewash mean?
- Maplewash means the misleading use of Canadian symbols, claims, or associations to exaggerate the Canadian origin, ownership, content, or character of a product, business, or service.
- How do you use maplewash in a sentence?
- If there’s one thing we don’t need to maplewash, it’s the Canadian English language: it’s already a uniquely Canadian combination […]
- What part of speech is maplewash?
- Maplewash is a verb.
- What is the past tense of maplewash?
- The past tense of maplewash is maplewashed.
Words near maplewash in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: maplewash (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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “maplewash.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/maplewash. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.