as in rhetoric
language marked by abstractions, jargon, euphemisms, and circumlocutions
instead of simply denying our request, the mayor's representative gave us a song and dance about legal issues and municipal liability
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of song and dance
There’s a dead body or two, a frothy song and dance number and absurd plot twists aplenty.
—
Randy Myers, Mercury News, 26 Nov. 2025
As the education ministry announced the grades for tens of thousands of high school students like Doaa, there was a buzz in the air as Palestinians set off fireworks and embraced in song and dance.
—Kareem El Damanhoury, CNN Money, 15 Nov. 2025
The film depicts her establishment of the utopian society while the Shakers worship with song and dance.
—Giana Levy, Variety, 6 Nov. 2025
This aptitude for song and dance, combined with some friend-of-a-friend magic, was enough to get Taylor an audience with two people who would change her life.
—Mikey O'Connell, HollywoodReporter, 5 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for song and dance
Randy Myers, Mercury News, 26 Nov. 2025
As the education ministry announced the grades for tens of thousands of high school students like Doaa, there was a buzz in the air as Palestinians set off fireworks and embraced in song and dance.
—Kareem El Damanhoury, CNN Money, 15 Nov. 2025
The film depicts her establishment of the utopian society while the Shakers worship with song and dance.
—Giana Levy, Variety, 6 Nov. 2025
This aptitude for song and dance, combined with some friend-of-a-friend magic, was enough to get Taylor an audience with two people who would change her life.
—Mikey O'Connell, HollywoodReporter, 5 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for song and dance
Recent Examples of Synonyms for song and dance
Noun
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That rhetoric has been replaced by a basic long-leash Republicanism — a shift that may be unsurprising with a dealmaker in the Oval Office, but has disappointed progressives and hardcore populists and sent legal sherpas scrambling to freshen their advice.—
Liz Hoffman,
semafor.com,
14 Feb. 2026
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My approach combines conservative principles with practical solutions, delivering measurable results—not rhetoric.—
Eleanor Dearman,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
14 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Now, there’s a bit of rigmarole in getting that price, which includes (according to Google Translate) nabbing a time-specific coupon worth $286 and trading in your old phone.—
Janhoi McGregor,
Forbes.com,
24 Jan. 2026
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Everyone was perfectly lovely and perfectly tepid about going through the whole rigamarole again.—
Lauren Bans,
Vulture,
5 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Meaningless gobbledygook to an outsider, yet powerful to those who know how to wield those sounds properly.—
Noel Murray,
Vulture,
17 Oct. 2025
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Bob Kring DeBary Congressional bill is full of greed The Great Big Beautiful Bill reads like 950 pages of of gobbledygook distilled into four words: Greedy, stingy, mean and short-sighted.—
Letters to the Editor,
The Orlando Sentinel,
2 July 2025
Noun
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The news conference did not live up to the hype.—
Michael Scherer,
The Atlantic,
14 Feb. 2026
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Obviously there’s a lot of hype around him and a lot of stories and so forth.—
Eric Olson,
Chicago Tribune,
13 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Imagine designing a system that conforms to that gibberish, or the ensuing court battles.—
The Editorial Board,
Oc Register,
25 Jan. 2026
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In Anthropic’s experiments, as few as 250 malicious documents were enough to induce AI models to output gibberish.—
Craig S. Smith,
Forbes.com,
21 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Driving the news: The statement was published only in English on the Facebook page of the Israeli Prime Minister's Office — potentially another case of double-talk by Netanyahu.—
Barak Ravid,
Axios,
27 Sep. 2024
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The GOP Senate candidate in Arizona, whose brand is a combative, never-back-down MAGA politics, has adopted a position on the issue that is nearly indistinguishable from that of double-talking Democrats.—
Rich Lowry,
National Review,
14 Apr. 2024
Cite this Entry
“Song and dance.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/song%20and%20dance. Accessed 17 Feb. 2026.
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