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• n  a favorite saying of a sect or political group
• n  a manner of speaking that is distinctive of a particular group of people

• Those who called it "shibboleth" were Ephraimites, got killed.
• As befits a tradition that reached its height during the Nixon years, flag lapel pins have fairly or not become to many a shibboleth of America's War on Terror, and a .
• The nationalization of Britain's steel industry has long been an emotion charged shibboleth for British socialists.

• motto
• slogan
• catchword

News & Articles

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• Will Facts Or Immigration Myths Shape New Congress Policies?
  Myths will probably not stop Congress from enacting some major changes in immigration policy this year, but half a dozen or so common shibboleths may well shape the changes that emerge. Here are a few: For every immigrant legalized and able to take a job, one American citizen worker will lose his or hers. Unauthorized immigrants pay almost no taxes, while costing taxpayers many billions of ...
  Aug. 11, 2013 - Santa Monica Mirror

Quotes

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• Al Gore in Consortium News
  We have always held out the shibboleth of Big Brother as a nightmare vision of the future that we're going to avoid at all costs,Gore said. "They have now taken the most fateful step in the direction of that Big Brother nightmare that any...
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Newsday
  Ginsburg wrote that Kennedy "invokes an antiabortion shibboleth for which [he] concededly has no reliable evidence" and strongly implied that Kennedy was guilty of sexism.
• Brinda Karat in Times of India
  Karat says: "It is not a shibboleth or a ritual, but a reflection of our political approach and practice."