''watchword'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''watchword'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260125204041-00-⌔

watchword - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

watchword (plural watchwords)

• A word used as a motto, as expressive of a principle, belief, or rule of action; a rallying cry.
  • ✤ Synonyms: guideword, catchword, byword, maxim, mantra, motto
  • ✤ “How this perpetual gaiety,” exclaimed Louis, “jars upon the ear! Good Heaven! is farewell to be said so gladly? I sometimes start when I think upon the hollowness of all that surrounds me. I often wish my eye had the power of searching the inmost depths of the bosoms whose watchword is my name.”¹
  • ✤ For-ward! be our watchword, Steps and voices joined;/Seek the things before us, Not a look behind.²
  • ✤ Atrocities of the most vicious kind were justified by the watchwords: “This is war!” “Might is Right.” “Necessity knows no law.”³
  • ✤ We can repay the debt which we owe to our God, to our dead, and to our children only by work — by ceaseless devotion to the responsibilities which lie ahead of us. If I could give you a single watchword for the coming months, that word is: work, work, and more work.⁴
  • ✤ *It’s a peel out the watchword/Just peel out the watchword *⁵
  • ✤ The Esk Valley route to Whitby was a classic example: a basic four trains a day service has persisted for decades, with economy the watchword.⁶
• (military, security) A prearranged reply to the challenge of a sentry or a guard; a password or signal by which friends can be known from enemies.
  • ✤ Synonyms: passphrase, password, underword
  • ✤ a Watchword sufficient for him that is wiſe⁷

Etymology

From Middle English wacche word, wacchworde, morphologically as watch (“guard, sentinel, sentry”) +‎ word.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈwɒt͡ʃwɜː(ɹ)d/
• Audio (US): 🔊
• Audio (Australian): 🔊

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

1. 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 321: ↩

2. 1871, “Forward! Be Our Watchword”, Henry Alford (lyrics), Henry Thomas Smart (music)‎${}^{[1]}$: ↩

3. 1919, Boris Sidis, The Source and Aim of Human Progress ‎${}^{[2]}$: ↩

4. 1945 May, Harry S. Truman, Announcement of Germany’s Surrender ‎${}^{[3]}$: ↩

5. 1994, Tori Amos, “Cornflake Girl”, in Under the Pink: ↩

6. 2019 October, James Abbott, “Esk Valley revival”, in Modern Railways, page 76: ↩

7. 1625, George Sandys, Sacrae heptades: ↩

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