Meaning & use
hot button
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
A subject that makes people react with strong feelings, especially anger or disagreement.
Grammar: Countable, so you can say a hot button or several hot buttons; it is often used in the phrase hot-button issue.
Patterns
- a hot button for someone
- push someone's hot buttons
- a hot-button issue
Taxes are a hot button for many voters in this district.
The reporter knew that school funding was a hot button, so she raised it gently.
He pressed her hot buttons by mentioning her old boss.
adjectivebefore a noun
Used before a noun to describe a topic that causes strong public disagreement or emotion.
Grammar: Comes directly before the noun and has no comparative form: a hot-button topic, not 'a very hot-button topic'.
Patterns
- a hot-button issue
- a hot-button topic
- a hot-button subject
Immigration remains a hot-button issue in the election campaign.
The mayor avoided the hot-button topic of rent control at the meeting.
Gun laws are a hot-button subject that divides the two parties.
Word forms
| plural | hot buttons |
|---|
Common combinations
- a hot-button issue
- Health care is a hot-button issue in this year's debate.
- a hot-button topic
- The panel steered clear of the hot-button topic of pay cuts.
- push someone's hot buttons
- Her remarks about his accent really pushed his hot buttons.
- a hot button for someone
- Climate policy is a hot button for younger voters.
- touch a hot button
- The interviewer accidentally touched a hot button with his first question.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sensitive issue
- Neutral and slightly softer; it says the topic needs care, while hot button stresses that people get angry about it.
- flashpoint
- Describes the moment or place where trouble suddenly starts, not the topic itself.
- controversial topic
- A more formal choice when you mean people argue about it rather than that it stirs strong emotion.
Word family
- hot-button adjective
- The same word used before a noun, as in a hot-button issue.
Commonly confused: hot button or hotline?
hot button vs hotline
A hotline is a telephone service for help or information; a hot button is an emotional topic. They sound similar but are unrelated.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'hot button' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Hot button' means a topic that stirs strong feelings, so it fits a subject like abortion. The other options use 'button' in its literal sense of something you press or wear, which is not what this expression means.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hot button”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.