pigeonhole
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.
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“If we embrace narrow group-based identities too fiercely, we cling to the very cages in which others would seek to trap us. We pigeonhole ourselves.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 31, 2026
"Aerospace has something for people with different backgrounds, different qualifications, there's so much variety. So don't pigeonhole yourself, there really is something for everyone here."
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2025
I’ve noticed that messages from readers increasingly tend to pigeonhole, label or categorize.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 13, 2024
And I don't know, it's just weird to get a kid who's talented, and pigeonhole them to writing about some topic that you feel the rest of the newsroom doesn't know about.
From Salon ● Mar. 30, 2024
When the knock came on her door she put the envelopes in a pigeonhole of her desk.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
Somewhere along the way if you're a young actor coming up, you can bet there are pigeonholes for everyone.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2024
Schumann created a nuanced new genre unfit for generic pigeonholes that includes aspects of opera, oratorio, chamber music and song.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2018
His musical tastes were broad, and he was already resisting pigeonholes.
From New York Times ● Feb. 8, 2017
And nothing pigeonholes an artist faster than becoming a one-hit wonder — a fact of which he’s painfully aware.
From The Verge ● Nov. 12, 2015
She put all of her papers neatly in the pigeonholes of her desk, and when Joe brought the tea tray she had him put it beside her bed.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
Sometimes pigeonholed as just a goalscorer, Haaland has 24 assists in three seasons for Manchester City in the Premier League and Europe, compared with 26 at Bayern for Kane.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026
Jeff Li felt pigeonholed in his job in the U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
Many actors are pigeonholed by a successful TV series.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 19, 2026
Eva Longoria is unafraid to speak her mind, whether it’s about politics, Latino issues or being pigeonholed as sexy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2025
Jazz celebrity though he was, Duke Ellington disliked his music being pigeonholed as ‘jazz’; he preferred simply to call it ‘American music’, and he experimented in many forms and genres.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
Points, too, for the solid casting, from the leads’ tricky pivoting from openness to caginess, to the criminally underseen Wasikowska, who navigates maternal complexities of worry and compassion that confound easy pigeonholing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
I was intrigued then when the pollster YouGuv, in combination with The Economist magazine, decided to take pigeonholing to a whole different level.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 13, 2024
And I don't know, I guess just not pigeonholing people.
From Salon ● Mar. 30, 2024
Where artists used to hate being pigeonholed, now they do the pigeonholing themselves.
From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2023
It offers no nifty formulas for pigeonholing people or decoding folkways and manners.
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
Vocabulary lists containing pigeonhole
The Legislative Branch, Sections 4–6
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