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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

snowclone.

A formulaic phrase that can be customized to fit a variety of contexts.

9 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈsnəʊ.kləʊn/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsnoʊ.kloʊn/US
  1. A formulaic phrase that can be customized to fit a variety of contexts.

Where this word comes from

Blend of snow cone + clone, in reference to the phrase “If Eskimos have dozens of words for snow, X have as many for Y” (which is an example of a snowclone). Coined by American television writer and economist Glen Whitman in January 2004, in response to Geoffrey Pullum on the blog Language Log.

verb/ˈsnəʊ.kləʊn/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsnoʊ.kloʊn/US
  1. To use a snowclone in speech or writing.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

Blend of snow cone + clone, in reference to the phrase “If Eskimos have dozens of words for snow, X have as many for Y” (which is an example of a snowclone). Coined by American television writer and economist Glen Whitman in January 2004, in response to Geoffrey Pullum on the blog Language Log.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.