The phrase "X is the new Y" is an example of a snowclone.
Source: tatoeba (10478474)
Snowclone
//ˈsnəʊ.kləʊn//
Synonyms for "snowclone"
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
coordinate
4 entriesderived
1 entriesderived from
4 entriesrelated to
6 entriesTranslations
11 translations across 9 languages.
Chinese Mandarin
1 entries- 雪克隆 noun (formulaic phrase that can be customized)
Dutch
1 entries- sneeuwkloon noun (formulaic phrase that can be customized)
Finnish
1 entries- kulunut ilmaus noun (formulaic phrase that can be customized)
French
1 entries- snowclone noun (formulaic phrase that can be customized)
German
1 entries- sprachliche Schablone noun (formulaic phrase that can be customized)
Japanese
2 entries- もじり noun (formulaic phrase that can be customized)
- スノークローン noun (formulaic phrase that can be customized)
Polish
2 entries- banał noun (formulaic phrase that can be customized)
- oklepana fraza noun (formulaic phrase that can be customized)
Russian
1 entries- фра́за-клише́ noun (formulaic phrase that can be customized)
Swedish
1 entries- snöklon noun (formulaic phrase that can be customized)
Sample sentences
10 total sentences available.
I stumbled upon the site the other day, when I was looking up the origins of the "Im not an X, but I play one on TV" snowclone.
Source: wiktionary
Suddenly snowclone hunters were documenting media usages suggesting that, in space, no one can hear you belch, bitch, blog, speak, squeak or suck.
Source: wiktionary
Regular readers learned there first about snowclones, the basic building blocks of cliches, like "X is the new Y" or "you don't need a degree in A to do B."
Source: wiktionary
Showing 4 of 10 available sentences.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.