Word.ws English Dictionary

mixed metaphors

mixed metaphors is the plural of mixed metaphor.

Meaning of mixed metaphor

Noun

mixed metaphor (plural mixed metaphors)

  1. An overreaching, contradictory or incongruous combination of two distinct metaphors, similes or idioms.
    • This is just what the world sounds like now. This is how everything has chosen to speak. Mixed metaphors and empty sincerity.2025 December 3, Sam Kriss, “Why Does A.I. Write Like … That?”, in The New York Times Magazine, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 03 Dec 2025

Questions about mixed metaphors

What is mixed metaphors the plural of?
Mixed metaphors is the plural of mixed metaphor.

Words near mixed metaphors in the dictionary

  1. mixed martial arts
  2. mixed media
  3. mixed message
  4. mixed messages
  5. mixed metaphor
  6. mixed metaphors
  7. mixed methods
  8. mixed monarchies
  9. mixed monarchy
  10. mixed mutation
  11. mixed mutations

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mixed metaphors (page history and authors); mixed metaphor (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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