"Overton window" meaning in English

See Overton window in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: Overton windows [plural]
Etymology: Named after Joseph P. Overton (1960–2003), former vice-president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Etymology templates: {{!}} |, {{lang|en|Joseph P. Overton}} Joseph P. Overton, {{named-after|en|Joseph P. Overton|born=1960|died=2003|occ=|wplink==}} Named after Joseph P. Overton (1960–2003) Head templates: {{en-noun}} Overton window (plural Overton windows)
  1. The range of ideas that the public will accept, i.e. those ideas that are not considered too extreme or radical. Wikipedia link: Mackinac Center for Public Policy Categories (topical): Sociology Synonyms: window of discourse Translations (Translations): Overtonin ikkuna (Finnish), Overton-Fenster [neuter] (German), Overton Window [neuter] (German), Grenzen des Sagbaren [feminine, plural] (German), finestra di Overton [feminine] (Italian), finèstra d'Overton [feminine] (Occitan), Fereastră Overton [feminine] (Romanian), ventana Overton [feminine] (Spanish), ventana de Overton [feminine] (Spanish)

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for Overton window meaning in English (4.9kB)

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          "text": "And yet, despite all this, a society can change completely in a few decades. The Overton window can shift. A classic strategy for achieving this is to proclaim ideas so shocking and subversive that anything less radical suddenly sounds sensible.",
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          "text": "Although the tactics of the online right are updated to a digital age, it is hard to think of a better term than Gramscian to describe what they have strategically achieved, as a movement almost entirely based on influencing culture and shifting the Overton window through media and culture, not just formal politics.",
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          "ref": "2023 August 8, Janan Ganesh, “The oneness of Ron DeSantis and Rishi Sunak”, in Financial Times",
          "text": "Yet each man will seem at least house-trained compared with recent leaders of their party. “Rightwing, but not feral,” is quite the commendation now. A political scientist might say that the Overton window of acceptable ideas has widened. In plainer speech: voters are grateful for small mercies.",
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          "ref": "2023 October 2, Courtney Young, “Calling It Now: Throuples Are About to Put Love Triangles Out of Business”, in Cosmopolitan",
          "text": "Mainstream culture is clearly fascinated by (and increasingly comfortable with) non-monogamy, and as a result, the Overton window of “provocative content” has shifted: What was once sexually explicit is today TV-MA, and classic romance is now, well, cringe.",
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          "word": "Overtonin ikkuna"
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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