What's the difference between catchword and watchword?

Catchword


Definition:

  • (n.) Among theatrical performers, the last word of the preceding speaker, which reminds one that he is to speak next; cue.
  • (n.) The first word of any page of a book after the first, inserted at the right hand bottom corner of the preceding page for the assistance of the reader. It is seldom used in modern printing.
  • (n.) A word or phrase caught up and repeated for effect; as, the catchword of a political party, etc.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This function gains particular significance considering the psychological concept of adolescence as being a particularly vulnerable phase in man's biographic course and the problematic position of modern industrial society discussed from the sociological side under the catchword "Colonialization of the life world (Lebenswelt)" (Habermas 1981).
  • (2) Putin said London and Moscow had common interests in bringing an end to the bloodshed, while maintaining Syria's territorial integrity – a catchword commonly used by Moscow to imply opposition to outside intervention.
  • (3) The catchword for multiskilled has become not "whether," but "how.

Watchword


Definition:

  • (n.) A word given to sentinels, and to such as have occasion to visit the guards, used as a signal by which a friend is known from an enemy, or a person who has a right to pass the watch from one who has not; a countersign; a password.
  • (n.) A sentiment or motto; esp., one used as a rallying cry or a signal for action.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) He poses a far greater risk to our security than any other Labour leader in my lifetime September 12, 2015 “Security” appears to be the new watchword of Cameron’s government – it was used six times by the prime minister in an article attacking Corbyn in the Times late last month, and eight times by the chancellor, George Osborne, in an article published in the Sun the following day.
  • (2) Individualism – the assertion of every person’s claim to maximised private freedom and the unrestrained liberty to express autonomous desires … became the leftwing watchword of the hour.” The result was an astonishing liberation: from millennia of social, gender and sexual control by powerful, mostly elderly men.
  • (3) That will be the watchword of David Cameron’s Tories next week.
  • (4) The mantra of "fewer, better" will become a watchword across the BBC's output – as will collaboration with other broadcasters: a reinvented Call The Midwife is relocated to the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
  • (5) Instead of being held captive to words such as "rational suicide" or "euthanasia", what is needed is an acceptance of more contemporary watchwords such as autonomy and self-determination.
  • (6) The watchwords are suitably commercial: “strategic commissioning”, “market-making”, and “brand protection”.
  • (7) In private, the watchword remains "Hamburger Hill", the brutal 80s Vietnam war film named because Vietnamese bullets turned human flesh into hamburger meat.
  • (8) Indeed, "choice and control" have been watchwords espoused by politicians of all hues since the mid-90s.
  • (9) It would seem unlikely that Germany would countenance any of these measures in any way, and for that reason caution remains the watchword.
  • (10) Count the number of times you hear the chancellor and prime minister say “security”, their watchword and their excuse for all they mean to do, from brutal spending cuts to purchasing an armoury of foreign military hardware.
  • (11) Shopping will change beyond recognition, with “ hyper showrooming ” the watchword – shops will become “emotional destinations”, products hidden away behind digital screens, and heavily tailored to individual taste, guided by algorithms and ultimately our own prior behaviour.
  • (12) Patience, not aggression, has been the watchword of law enforcement ever since.
  • (13) Ruthlessness has become the network owners' watchword now, because the mobile phone boom they have ridden for nearly 20 years is over.
  • (14) Caution was the watchword, and both coaches were unapologetic.
  • (15) Security” is Cameron’s current watchword – “for families, for the country” – but there is no security for families forever on short private leases.
  • (16) The traditional core service in most places is essential support with personal care for people with long-term health and care needs, where the watchword is continuity of relationships, reliability and dignity.
  • (17) "Reform" was their watchword and they had one new article of faith: that the best proof of any leader's bona fides was the habit of loudly defining themselves against their own side.
  • (18) Except for a few tweaks that generally resonate more at home than with Germany's European and international partners (such as requiring the government to be more transparent concerning arms exports to autocratic regimes), continuity and caution will remain the watchwords of German foreign and security policy.
  • (19) One understanding holds "Benghazi" as a watchword for government malfeasance.
  • (20) "[We] propose a 'new union for fairness' whose watchwords are power-sharing, diversity and constitutional partnership, replacing the old union of centralisation, uniformity and Westminster's undivided sovereignty."