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cookie-cutter

cookie-cutter

6 6.5
Not original and very similar to many others
  • adjective
  • /ˈkʊkiˌkʌtər/
  • Informal
translation icon : estereotipado
  • We did not make cookie-cutter art.
  • cookie-cutter approach

Examples

  • Every city that I've lived in all had that cookie-cutter feel.

    Blog text (2)
  • However, what follows is not the story of a cookie-cutter recipe for starting a makerspace; there is no such recipe.

    Academic text (2014)
  • Successful strategies are as varied as the communities themselves; no single cookie-cutter approach works in all situations.

    Academic text (2009)
  • Their letters are often cookie-cutter, and a few are absurdly short.

    Blog text (23)
  • Too often, however, they are about recreating one teacher's style, a cookie-cutter model of developing a leader.

    Blog text (25)
  • The whole point of his article is custom blogs, not cookie-cutter designs.

    Blog text (27)
  • There were no cookie-cutter subdivisions, no planned developments with architect-designed wraparound porches.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • Many people are tired of the cookie-cutter design of modern office buildings that lack creativity.

  • Critics argue that a cookie-cutter educational system fails to meet the unique needs of students.

  • The artist refused to create a cookie-cutter version of her work, opting instead for something truly unique.

Synonyms

stereotypical
vscookie-cutter
34 4.4

Shows a simple, fixed idea about a group of people

is broader, stressing generic standardization rather than a single conventional idea
unoriginal
vscookie-cutter
8 3.4

Not new or creative like ideas you have heard before

implies standardized, generic sameness rather than only absence of newness
cut-and-dried
vscookie-cutter
8 4.7

Simple and clear because it follows fixed rules

focuses on being generic and standardized rather than only fixed and unchanging
stereotyped
vscookie-cutter
4 4.4

Showing the same simple ideas again and again

is more about overall standardized sameness than just repetition
cookie cutter
vscookie-cutter
  • Informal
4 4.8

Made in a simple, predictable way so many things look the same

is about broad standardization and generic sameness rather than mere predictability
stereotypic
vscookie-cutter
1 7.0

Having no original ideas and following a simple idea about a group of people

is stronger in suggesting systematic standardization across many examples

Antonyms

3.5

The only one of its kind

Preferring to act or think independently and be different

How Unoriginal

banal
21 7.2
derivative
26 7.2
cookie-cutter
  • Informal
6 6.5
predictable
189 2.5
conventional
175 2.8

Surface Forms

cookie-cutter positive

Morphology

cookie-cutter = cookie + cutter (semi-transparent) = cookie + cutter

The compound is a metaphorical extension from a literal tool that makes identical cookie shapes; the figurative sense 'standardized; lacking originality' is inferable but involves a conventional metaphor.

Etymology

The word cookie-cutter comes from the kitchen tool: a cookie is a small sweet and a cutter makes many shapes that are exactly the same. So if something is cookie-cutter, it is 'all the same' and 'lacks originality'.