touchstone

"The Moon is a kind of touchstone for us - and an important conceptual stepping stone on our way to Mercury."

From Science Daily ● Sep. 12, 2026

And Perlis’ storytelling skills make it seem like good fun as he pingpongs from artist to artist, each somehow inventing a meaningful, or at least recognizable, cultural touchstone.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026

However this case ends, it will enter the history books as a landmark criminal trial that became a cultural and legal touchstone for maternal mental health.

From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2026

Also opening on Broadway in 1959 was Lorraine Hansberry’s masterpiece “A Raisin in the Sun,” a touchstone of American drama.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026

Its Olympian tone made it a perennial touchstone at those political occasions requiring platitudinous wisdom.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

“Widow’s Bay,” leaning into comedy, goes old school, conjuring familiar spectres that knowingly nod to “Jaws,” “Psycho,” the canonical works of King and John Carpenter, and other touchstones of cultural anxiety.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026

But the air, space and instrumental cohesion of touchstones like, say, Bonnie Raitt are nowhere to be found.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026

And of course, Bad Bunny is hugely popular across the United States, which has among the largest Spanish-speaking populations globally -- so why wouldn't he take part in one of the country's cultural touchstones?

From Barron's ● Jan. 31, 2026

That context makes it clearer to understand why, four decades after it flopped in theaters, “Labyrinth” and Bowie’s work in it are now beloved cultural touchstones.

From Salon ● Jan. 24, 2026

They were the codes and touchstones of the world, capable of translation and possession.

From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison