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Learn More American Expressions

party line

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Puzzle #104 · September 13, 2025
The party line is policies or principles of a political party.

Maintaining agreement and support for those principles, particularly when under pressure or where common sense may suggest otherwise, is known as holding (or toeing) the party line.

A party line was also a single telephone line shared by multiple households, especially in rural America as it was cheaper and easier to setup. On a party line, one could listen to a neighbor's phone calls by picking up one's one receiver.
Puzzle Appearances

The expression party line has appeared in 2 puzzles:

  • Puzzle #104 on September 13, 2025
  • Puzzle #145 on October 24, 2025
Rate of Appearance in English Language Print

Google's Ngram project shows how often a pair of words has appeared in print every year since the 1800's.

Data from Google Books Ngram Viewer. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.

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