Word.ws English Dictionary

scare-quote

scare-quote is the alternative form of scare quote.

Meaning of scare quote

Noun

scare quote (plural scare quotes)

  1. (in plural) A quotation mark deliberately used to provoke a reaction or to indicate that the author does not approve of a term or clause, rather than to identify a direct quotation.
    • One other important figure in postmodern thought is Richard Rorty, who might be characterized as master of the scare quote2001 January 1, “The Retreat From Inquiry and Knowledge in Special Education.”, in Journal of Special Education

Forms of scare-quote

pluralscare-quotes

Questions about scare-quote

What is scare-quote the alternative form of?
Scare-quote is the alternative form of scare quote.

Words near scare-quote in the dictionary

  1. scare-crows
  2. scare-head
  3. scare-heads
  4. scare-line
  5. scare-lines
  6. scare-quote
  7. scare-quotes
  8. scare-roused
  9. scare-sleep
  10. scare-sleeps
  11. scare-the-birds

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scare-quote (page history and authors); scare quote (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: “scare-quote.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scare-quote. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.