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What is the Difference Between cliché and stereotype?
The words cliché and stereotype have a good deal in common. Both come from French, both were originally printers’ terms, and both have come to take on somewhat negative meanings in modern use.
Their original meanings are essentially synonymous, referring to printing blocks from which numerous prints could be made. In fact, cliché means stereotype in French. Their modern meanings, however, are quite distinct. Cliché is today overwhelmingly encountered in reference to something hackneyed, such as an overly familiar or commonplace phrase, theme, or expression. Stereotype is most frequently now employed to refer to an often unfair and untrue belief that many people have about all people or things with a particular characteristic.
Synonyms
Examples of cliché in a Sentence
William F. Buckley, Jr., National Review, 1 May 2000
FILM "I Like It Like That": It has every cliché of the 'hood genre, elevated by a strong woman protagonist and a few comic moments.
—Bell Hooks, Ms., September/October 1994
I'd never been out with a model before, so I hadn't even bargained on the cliché of the rock star and the model as being part of my life.
—David Bowie, quoted in Rolling Stone, 10 June 1993
Time has been the best healer for the pain of loss, just as the old cliché says, but letting go is still difficult.
—Lynn McAndrews, My Father Forgets, 1990
… don't seek the ultimate, general solution; find a corner that can be defined precisely and, as our new cliché proclaims, go for it.
—Stephen Jay Gould, Natural History, July 1987
a speech filled with clichés about “finding your way” and “keeping the faith”
The macho cop of Hollywood movies has become a cliché.
Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 June 2024
This revival, despite some big rewrites by Harvey Fierstein, is still stuck around the sort of romantic cliches and hoary old body-image issues that most Broadway musicals strenuously avoid these days.
—Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 20 June 2024
Trump’s other complaints about inflation veer toward empty cliches.
—Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, TIME, 20 June 2024
It's become such a cliche for brands to suddenly become ostensibly pro-LGBTQ+ during June that there's even a term for it: rainbow-washing.
—Nathaniel Rakich, ABC News, 14 June 2024
But having the family connection there motivating me, day to day, is not just a cliche.
—Phoebe Wall Howard, Detroit Free Press, 27 May 2024
It’s become a cliche for toxic workplaces or more of a red flag, as an Harvard Business Review blog post from leadership expert Joshua A. Luna, points out.
—Alicia Adamczyk, Fortune, 3 June 2024
It's become a cliche for parents to look at their young children and see a kind of purity and innocence.
—Leah Donnella, NPR, 18 May 2024
Many promising series either don’t seem to know how to close out their stories or fall into what’s expected in a landscape driven by tropes and cliches.
—Geoffrey Bunting, TIME, 30 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cliché.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Cliché.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clich%C3%A9. Accessed 7 Jul. 2024.
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cliché
noun
French, literally, "metal printing plate"
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