How to Use pigeonhole in a Sentence

pigeonhole

1 of 2 noun
Definition of pigeonholenext
Synonyms for pigeonholenext
  • As pigeonholes go, this is a rather roomy one to be in.
    — The Washington Post, The Mercury News, 8 Mar. 2017
  • Pascal, for one, is ready to do away with the pigeonhole.
    — Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, 19 Dec. 2019
  • And to his credit, Leitch escapes that pigeonhole … only to get trapped in another.
    — Tim Grierson, Vulture, 2 Dec. 2022
  • Princeton had this sort of, this pigeonhole for faculty wives, they just were supposed to go to the certain parties and behave in a certain way.
    — Katie Hafner, Scientific American, 7 Apr. 2022
  • Taking their name from a childhood board game, Hüsker Dü evaded pigeonholes while outshining most of their punk brethren.
    — Jason Heller, The Atlantic, 9 Oct. 2017
  • Now, all those necessities of travel must be poked into a narrow pigeonhole on the console, just forward of the shifter.
    — Patrick Bedard, Car and Driver, 26 Jan. 2023
  • Low outgrew that pigeonhole but continued to earn praise.
    — Alex Williams, BostonGlobe.com, 12 Nov. 2022
  • The story is imagined by a filmmaker with a nose for elements that so often go missing among many movies put in the horror pigeonhole.
    — John Anderson, WSJ, 16 Aug. 2022
  • The blisters that made him funnel pitches into a pigeonhole for two months are finally clearing up.
    — Andrew Baggarly, The Mercury News, 3 June 2017
  • Lynne grew increasingly frustrated with her Nashville pigeonhole, and was not shy about saying so in public.
    — Mary Colurso | McOlurso@al.com, AL.com, 25 Aug. 2017
  • Or, going back to our sign, everything else goes into the general partnership pigeonhole.
    — Jay Adkisson, Forbes, 27 June 2022
  • Schumann created a nuanced new genre unfit for generic pigeonholes that includes aspects of opera, oratorio, chamber music and song.
    — Mark Swed, latimes.com, 4 June 2018
  • Similarly defying pigeonholes is Christopher Patton, who has optically transformed close-ups of his handwriting into a series of abstract images, made into a video loop.
    — Gary Faigin, The Seattle Times, 26 June 2017
  • Despite the versatility Kleijn describes, the cello is mostly associated with Western classical music — a pigeonhole traditionally sidestepped, for whatever reason, by its violin and double bass siblings.
    — Hannah Edgar, Chicago Tribune, 28 June 2022
  • As pigeonholes go, this is a rather roomy one to be in.
    — The Washington Post, The Mercury News, 8 Mar. 2017
  • Pascal, for one, is ready to do away with the pigeonhole.
    — Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, 19 Dec. 2019
  • And to his credit, Leitch escapes that pigeonhole … only to get trapped in another.
    — Tim Grierson, Vulture, 2 Dec. 2022
  • Princeton had this sort of, this pigeonhole for faculty wives, they just were supposed to go to the certain parties and behave in a certain way.
    — Katie Hafner, Scientific American, 7 Apr. 2022
  • Taking their name from a childhood board game, Hüsker Dü evaded pigeonholes while outshining most of their punk brethren.
    — Jason Heller, The Atlantic, 9 Oct. 2017
  • Now, all those necessities of travel must be poked into a narrow pigeonhole on the console, just forward of the shifter.
    — Patrick Bedard, Car and Driver, 26 Jan. 2023
  • Low outgrew that pigeonhole but continued to earn praise.
    — Alex Williams, BostonGlobe.com, 12 Nov. 2022
  • The story is imagined by a filmmaker with a nose for elements that so often go missing among many movies put in the horror pigeonhole.
    — John Anderson, WSJ, 16 Aug. 2022
  • The blisters that made him funnel pitches into a pigeonhole for two months are finally clearing up.
    — Andrew Baggarly, The Mercury News, 3 June 2017
  • Lynne grew increasingly frustrated with her Nashville pigeonhole, and was not shy about saying so in public.
    — Mary Colurso | McOlurso@al.com, AL.com, 25 Aug. 2017
  • Or, going back to our sign, everything else goes into the general partnership pigeonhole.
    — Jay Adkisson, Forbes, 27 June 2022
  • Schumann created a nuanced new genre unfit for generic pigeonholes that includes aspects of opera, oratorio, chamber music and song.
    — Mark Swed, latimes.com, 4 June 2018
  • Similarly defying pigeonholes is Christopher Patton, who has optically transformed close-ups of his handwriting into a series of abstract images, made into a video loop.
    — Gary Faigin, The Seattle Times, 26 June 2017
  • Despite the versatility Kleijn describes, the cello is mostly associated with Western classical music — a pigeonhole traditionally sidestepped, for whatever reason, by its violin and double bass siblings.
    — Hannah Edgar, Chicago Tribune, 28 June 2022
Advertisement

pigeonhole

2 of 2 verb
  • She likes to perform different types of music because she doesn't want to be pigeonholed.
  • That could pigeonhole the type of line the Dolphins can feature.
    — Omar Kelly, sun-sentinel.com, 1 Sep. 2020
  • Why do people get pigeonholed as bad or good in the first place?
    — Danny Westneat, The Seattle Times, 7 July 2017
  • Both sides felt pigeonholed and stereotyped over the years.
    — Lisa Rosen, latimes.com, 13 June 2018
  • The industry might try to pigeonhole her in this rap game, but she’s got a plan that’s much bigger.
    — Rachel Yang, EW.com, 23 Sep. 2020
  • Before Aaron Nola ever got to the big leagues he was pigeonholed as a No. 3 starter — at best.
    — Bob Brookover, Philly.com, 11 Apr. 2018
  • A ton of us work from home these days, but that shouldn’t pigeonhole you to hunching over a laptop at your kitchen table.
    — Landon Pemper, Chron, 15 Mar. 2021
  • The days of Dallas pigeonholing itself into a small set of coverages should be a thing of the past.
    — John Owning, Dallas News, 29 Jan. 2020
  • But he’s somewhat pigeonholed himself as a red zone threat and little else the past two seasons.
    — Stephen Holder, Indianapolis Star, 7 Sep. 2017
  • Even Jeff himself is written in such a way that he can’t be pigeonholed as a character one way or the other.
    — Karen Han, Vox, 8 Sep. 2018
  • Pumphrey, in many minds, will be pigeonholed into being a specialist in the NFL because of his size.
    — Bob Brookover, Philly.com, 2 May 2017
  • The Suns and Jae Crowder have repeatedly told the media to not pigeonhole him as just a 3-point gunner.
    — Dana Scott, The Arizona Republic, 5 May 2022
  • Some may try to pigeonhole Flowers as a slot receiver at the next level because of his size.
    — David Furones, Sun Sentinel, 4 Mar. 2023
  • There’s no way to really pigeonhole the region because there’s a lot of great people all over.
    — Ben Flanagan | Bflanagan@al.com, al, 21 Aug. 2019
  • While pigeonholing has no place in their work, finishing each other’s sentences is a big part of the process.
    — Erika Houle, Los Angeles Times, 7 Sep. 2023
  • The 33-year-old actor is working overtime to make sure that as a tall, burly Black man, he doesn’t get pigeonholed into certain roles.
    — Ineye Komonibo, refinery29.com, 9 Mar. 2020
  • He was also fed up at being pigeonholed as a Cherokee artist.
    — Jori Finkel, New York Times, 10 Mar. 2017
  • The Swedish writer Henning Mankell did not let himself be pigeonholed.
    — Dennis Drabelle, Washington Post, 5 Mar. 2020
  • But, don’t pigeonhole people —their feelings may change over time.
    — Gwen Moran, Fortune, 9 Sep. 2019
  • We are often pigeonholed as being hosts or servers in the industry.
    — George McCalman, San Francisco Chronicle, 25 May 2018
  • Those are broad strokes, of course, and no doubt there are fans who would squirm at being politically pigeonholed.
    — Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press, 16 Sep. 2017
  • There is nothing about this book that is pigeonholed or apologetic.
    — Tyler Ford, Teen Vogue, 29 Aug. 2018
  • The idea is less to pigeonhole people and more to remember that not everyone is exactly like you.
    — Business Insider, Fortune, 24 Aug. 2017
  • Nor does the brand want to pigeonhole itself, as Li and Zhou look beyond China for inspiration.
    — CNN, 5 Apr. 2022
  • For as long as there has been a fashion industry in the United States there have been attempts to pigeonhole it and squish it into manageable form.
    — New York Times, 9 Sep. 2021
  • Park could understand that desire to not be pigeonholed.
    — Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY, 6 July 2023
  • My secret ambition was to break out of whatever pigeonhole that people had placed me in.
    — David Lyman, Cincinnati.com, 28 July 2017
  • But turns out Miami’s new coaches envision him as a pass catching, third-down back and have pigeonholed him there.
    — Omar Kelly, sun-sentinel.com, 17 Oct. 2019
  • Native actors are often pigeonholed in Westerns, a genre that does not tend to reap statues during awards season.
    — Stephen Humphries, The Christian Science Monitor, 8 Mar. 2024
  • Booster and Liu discuss their years of being pigeonholed by their race by casting directors.
    — Ilana Kaplan, Los Angeles Times, 24 Jan. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pigeonhole.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: