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Recent Examples of collocation
The collocation of them is not unusual.
—
New York Times, 30 July 2021
The risk of these writers’ style, with their short chapters and darting insights, is randomness, and sometimes this book, whatever its thematic claims, seems to consist of what has come under the author’s eye, an arbitrary collocation.
—Charles Finch, Los Angeles Times, 28 Apr. 2022
New York Times, 30 July 2021
The risk of these writers’ style, with their short chapters and darting insights, is randomness, and sometimes this book, whatever its thematic claims, seems to consist of what has come under the author’s eye, an arbitrary collocation.
—Charles Finch, Los Angeles Times, 28 Apr. 2022
Recent Examples of Synonyms for collocation
Noun
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That much of the act’s power can be destroyed by tweaking its definition of one phrase reveals its central weakness.—
Emma Marris,
The Atlantic,
25 May 2025
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The impetus to travel overland to Afghanistan at 19 came from a need — for want of a better phrase — to discover something within myself, not to discover Afghanistan.—
Sean Woods,
Rolling Stone,
24 May 2025
Noun
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Powered by nine proprietary learning methods, the platform integrates real-time cultural signals - from memes and slang to idioms and ancient lore.—
Nell Derick Debevoise,
Forbes.com,
8 May 2025
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But the nature of all idioms is that their meaning cannot be deduced from their components; the phrase kicked the bucket does not put the English speaker in the mind of an actual bucket, just as the word death does not remind him terribly of the letter D.—
Andrea Long Chu,
Vulture,
6 May 2025
Noun
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Confucius says—an old-fashioned locution, perhaps, but appropriate here—never to take interest in feats of strength.—
Adam Gopnik,
The New Yorker,
25 Mar. 2024
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That archly strangled locution, the ceaseless scorn: the vendor’s voice nags at the former Dean Street boy.—
Rachel Cusk,
Harper's Magazine,
27 Sep. 2023
Cite this Entry
“Collocation.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/collocation. Accessed 1 Jun. 2025.
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