straw man

S s

Transcription

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- UK Pronunciation
- UK IPA
- [straw man]
- /strɔ mæn/
- /strɔː mæn/

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [straw man]
- /strɔ mæn/

Definitions of straw man words

noun straw man a mass of straw formed to resemble a man, as for a doll or scarecrow. 1
noun straw man a person whose importance or function is only nominal, as to cover another's activities; front. 1
noun straw man a fabricated or conveniently weak or innocuous person, object, matter, etc., used as a seeming adversary or argument: The issue she railed about was no more than a straw man. 1
noun straw man insubstantial argument 1
noun straw man a figure of a man made from straw 0
noun straw man scarecrow 0

See all 9 definitions of straw man

Information block about the term

Origin of straw man

First appearance:

before 1585

One of the 35% oldest English words

First recorded in 1585-95

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Straw man

noun

adjective

verb

adverb

pronoun

preposition

conjunction

determiner

exclamation

Full grammatical hierarchy of Straw man

straw man popularity

A pretty common term. Usually people know it’s meaning, but prefer to use a more spread out synonym. About 46% of English native speakers know the meaning and use word.

Most Europeans know this English word. The frequency of it’s usage is somewhere between "mom" and "screwdriver".

straw man usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer

Synonyms for straw man

noun straw man

man of straw — straw man.

Just one Synonym for straw man