"mixed metaphor" meaning in English

See mixed metaphor in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: mixed metaphors [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} mixed metaphor (plural mixed metaphors)
  1. (linguistics) An overreaching, contradictory or incongruous combination of two distinct metaphors, similes or idioms. Related terms: malaphor Translations (Translations): 混合隱喻 /混合隐喻 (Chinese Mandarin), ontuva vertausten yhdistelmä (Finnish), ontuva vertaus (note: not necessarily a combination) (Finnish), métaphore mixte [feminine] (French), verknüpfte Metaphern [feminine, plural] (German), schiefes Bild [neuter] (German), mieszana metafora [feminine] (Polish)

Inflected forms

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        "(linguistics) An overreaching, contradictory or incongruous combination of two distinct metaphors, similes or idioms."
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          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
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          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "混合隱喻 /混合隐喻"
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          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
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          "word": "verknüpfte Metaphern"
        },
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          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "lang_code": "de",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "schiefes Bild"
        },
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          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "lang_code": "pl",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "mieszana metafora"
        }
      ]
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      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "lang_code": "cmn",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "混合隱喻 /混合隐喻"
    },
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      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "ontuva vertausten yhdistelmä"
    },
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      "code": "fi",
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      "note": "not necessarily a combination",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "ontuva vertaus"
    },
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      "lang": "French",
      "lang_code": "fr",
      "sense": "Translations",
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      "word": "métaphore mixte"
    },
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      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "feminine",
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      "word": "verknüpfte Metaphern"
    },
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      "lang": "German",
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      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
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    },
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      "lang": "Polish",
      "lang_code": "pl",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
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      "word": "mieszana metafora"
    }
  ],
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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 2026-03-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (05c257f and 9d9a410). 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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