more heat than light
idiom
—used to say that something or someone causes anger without making something (such as an issue under discussion) better understood
Her inflammatory speech generated/produced more heat than light on the topic.
The provocative new book generates more heat than light.
Examples of more heat than light in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
History teaches that the fear of being or of seeming cowardly can lead to terrible blunders, and contemporary experience shows that invocations of cowardice typically shed more heat than light.
—
Chris Walsh, Foreign Affairs, 17 June 2015
Sadly, much of this discourse has shed more heat than light on the controversy.
—IEEE Spectrum, 27 Jan. 2012
Discussions of racial issues usually throw off more heat than light and too often assume that local distinctions and attitudes are universal and immutable rather than particular and contingent.
—Gideon Rose, Foreign Affairs, 10 Feb. 2015
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Chris Walsh, Foreign Affairs, 17 June 2015
Sadly, much of this discourse has shed more heat than light on the controversy.
—IEEE Spectrum, 27 Jan. 2012
Discussions of racial issues usually throw off more heat than light and too often assume that local distinctions and attitudes are universal and immutable rather than particular and contingent.
—Gideon Rose, Foreign Affairs, 10 Feb. 2015
Dictionary Entries Near more heat than light
more fun than a barrel (full) of monkeys
more heat than light
Cite this Entry
“More heat than light.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/more%20heat%20than%20light. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share