the d-word
- noun
- Informal
:
la palabra d
- She nervously avoided mentioning the d-word during the family dinner.
Examples
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Bringing up the d-word in conversations made everyone feel uncomfortable.
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In some cultures, people rarely say the d-word openly, even when it is relevant.
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Don't mention the d-word!
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She mentioned the d-word during the meeting.
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Bringing up the d-word in conversations often leads to an awkward silence.
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Many people feel anxious discussing the d-word due to its sensitive nature.
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At the family gathering, everyone avoided the topic of the d-word to keep the peace.
Synonyms
963
2.9
An official ending of a marriage by a court
1
6.1
The legal end of a marriage decided by a court
1
5.2
The legal ending of a marriage that a court approves
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
the + d-word
The structure 'the + [letter]-word' transparently signals a euphemistic placeholder for a taboo or sensitive word beginning with that letter, so a learner who knows 'the', a letter name, and 'word' will infer it refers to an avoided word starting with D. However, the exact referent (here 'divorce') is not predictable from the constituents alone and requires contextual or cultural knowledge, so the relation is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The d-word comes from people who do not want to say the painful word 'divorce', so they say only the letter d and the word word instead. That's why the d-word is used to mean 'divorce' in a quiet or indirect way.