pigeonholing

verb

present participle of pigeonhole
as in categorizing
disapproving to unfairly think of or describe (someone or something) as belonging to only a certain category She likes to perform different types of music because she doesn't want to be pigeonholed.

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of pigeonholing McCurdy cautions against classifying Holiday as a blues singer and pigeonholing her into an age and culture. — Daniella Walsh, Oc Register, 21 Mar. 2026 The broader appeal and usefulness of the Dashaway eCT are just too dramatic to dedicate more time pigeonholing himself into a restrictive niche. — New Atlas, 28 Oct. 2025 Leibovitz has always resisted pigeonholing. — Y-Jean Mun-Delsalle, Forbes.com, 13 Aug. 2025 Whether your perception of Gen Z is shaped by real-world interactions or two-dimensional headlines, pigeonholing a whole generation is reductive. — Alex Cooper, Fortune, 16 May 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pigeonholing
  1. categorizing
  2. classifying
  3. relegating
  4. separating
  5. identifying
Verb
  • To streamline the private-public partnership and ensure the most rapid response to the biggest risks, Anthropic said the AI industry’s goal should be categorizing risks to ensure proper interventions both internally and from the government.
    — Ashley Belanger, ArsTechnica, 1 July 2026
  • Nearly four-fifths of respondents said that gas prices present some sort of strain, with 34% categorizing it as a major strain and 44% calling it a minor strain.
    — Justine McDaniel, Los Angeles Times, 28 June 2026
Definition of categorizing
Verb
  • The legislation, which Gribbin advocated for, authorizes the warnings by classifying a shark attack as an event for which an emergency alert can be issued.
    — Kim Chandler, Los Angeles Times, 2 July 2026
  • He is credited as the first and most significant contributor to South Florida archaeology of the time, classifying materials, recording 49 sites across Miami-Dade and making the first outline of a chronology of indigenous habitation.
    — Andres Viglucci, Miami Herald, 30 June 2026
Definition of classifying
Verb
  • Perhaps its most red card-worthy offense was relegating Kuno Becker’s charismatic lead — the series’ only mainstay — to bit part, focusing instead on two new England internationals without an ounce of personality.
    — Jon O'Brien, Vulture, 26 June 2026
  • The new format will be familiar to fans of other sports like soccer, where some leagues feature differentiated divisions that promote and retain the best performing teams, while relegating those who don’t perform as well to lower circuits.
    — Dominic Chu, CNBC, 23 June 2026
Definition of relegating
Verb
  • Khushboo Gupta, vice president of policy at PETA India, said the aesthetic appeal of live elephants doesn’t justify shackling, beating and separating them from their families.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 3 July 2026
  • This process involves removing fuel, managing radiological controls, separating the hull, demilitarizing, and recycling.
    — Sujita Sinha, Interesting Engineering, 3 July 2026
Definition of separating
Verb
  • The program has also introduced Earthster, a modeling platform that helps companies evaluate the environmental impact of semiconductor manufacturing by identifying energy use, material consumption, and carbon-emission hotspots across their products.
    — Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 6 July 2026
  • The unknown profile, prosecutors said, did not contain enough identifying information to be submitted to CODIS, the national DNA database.
    — Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, FOXNews.com, 5 July 2026
Definition of identifying

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Cite this Entry

“Pigeonholing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pigeonholing. Accessed 8 Jul. 2026.

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