shibboleth

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent,” is a financial industry shibboleth most investors have learned through a great deal of pain.

From Barron's • Nov. 4, 2025

This is the shibboleth that no fault must ever attach to the electorate.

From Salon • Aug. 24, 2025

That’s because, contrary to the shibboleth, the good isn’t the enemy of the great—it’s the loam of the great.

From The New Yorker • Jun. 9, 2023

Precisely because it’s off-limits to outsiders, it can function as a shibboleth among certain Black speakers, who use it more or less interchangeably with “guy” or “brother.”

From New York Times • Apr. 5, 2022

History is a cumulative record of success and failure, and the pretense that it can be something other than that is a peculiar shibboleth of historical writing over the last fifty years.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton