| English Dictionary |
WATCHWORD
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| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does watchword mean?
• WATCHWORD (noun)
The noun WATCHWORD has 2 senses:
1. a slogan used to rally support for a cause
2. a secret word or phrase known only to a restricted group
Familiarity information: WATCHWORD used as a noun is rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
A slogan used to rally support for a cause
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Synonyms:
battle cry; cry; rallying cry; war cry; watchword
Context example:
our watchword will be 'democracy'
Hypernyms ("watchword" is a kind of...):
catchword; motto; shibboleth; slogan (a favorite saying of a sect or political group)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A secret word or phrase known only to a restricted group
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Synonyms:
countersign; parole; password; watchword; word
Context example:
he forgot the password
Hypernyms ("watchword" is a kind of...):
arcanum; secret (information known only to a special group)
positive identification (evidence proving that you are who you say you are; evidence establishing that you are among the group of people already known to the system; recognition by the system leads to acceptance)
Context examples
They still piled the brushwood round the base of the tower, and gambolled hand in hand around the blaze, screaming out the doggerel lines which had long been the watchword of the Jacquerie.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
"Someone else's pain is easy to carry" (Breton proverb)
"If you hear a person talking good about things that aren't in you, don't be sure that he wouldn't also say bad things about things that aren't in you." (Arabic proverb)
"No man has fallen from the sky learned." (Czech proverb)