Hofstadter
Americannoun
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Richard, 1916–70, U.S. historian.
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Robert, 1915–90, U.S. physicist: Nobel Prize 1961.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Sixty years ago, political scientist Richard Hofstadter recognized this syndrome:
From Salon ● Feb. 7, 2026
On the CBS sitcom "The Big Bang Theory," characters Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter wrestled with the same idea across three episodes in Season 5.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 28, 2025
Mr. Hofstadter likes to intertwine a couple’s names as a wedding gift, for example, so that “Rachel” rotates into “Winston.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025
By the time Hofstadter wrote that, the Red Scare had subsided, its loudest voices pushed to the fringe of U.S. politics.
From Slate ● Mar. 17, 2025
There’s something to this, of course, but Martin Gardner, Douglas Hofstadter, and Raymond Smullyan are three obvious counter-examples.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
