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Look up platitude in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. A platitude is a statement that is seen as trite, meaningless, or prosaic, aimed at quelling social, emotional, or cognitive unease. [ 1] The statement may be true, but its meaning has been lost due to its excessive use as a thought-terminating cliché. [ 2]
Pleonasm. Pleonasm ( / ˈpliː.əˌnæzəm /; from Ancient Greek πλεονασμός (pleonasmós), from πλέον (pléon) 'to be in excess') [ 1][ 2] is redundancy in linguistic expression, such as in "black darkness," "burning fire," "the man he said," [ 3] or "vibrating with motion." It is a manifestation of tautology by traditional ...
Tautology (language) In literary criticism and rhetoric, a tautology is a statement that repeats an idea, using near-synonymous morphemes, words or phrases, effectively "saying the same thing twice". [ 1][ 2] Tautology and pleonasm are not consistently differentiated in literature. [ 3] Like pleonasm, tautology is often considered a fault of ...
Formulaic language (previously known as automatic speech or embolalia) is a linguistic term for verbal expressions that are fixed in form, often non-literal in meaning with attitudinal nuances, and closely related to communicative-pragmatic context. [ 1] Along with idioms, expletives and proverbs, formulaic language includes pause fillers (e.g ...
Look up redundancy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. In linguistics, a redundancy is information that is expressed more than once. [1] [2] Examples of redundancies include multiple agreement features in morphology, [1] multiple features distinguishing phonemes in phonology, [2] or the use of multiple words to express a single idea in rhetoric.
Flogging a dead horse. A man sits atop a dead horse in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The idiom "to beat a dead horse" originated from the fact that flogging a dead horse will not compel it to do useful work. Flogging a dead horse (or beating a dead horse in American English) is an idiom meaning that a particular effort is futile.
Bromide (language) Look up bromide in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Bromide in literary usage means a phrase, cliché, or platitude that is trite or unoriginal. It can be intended to soothe or placate; it can suggest insincerity or a lack of originality in the speaker. [ 1][ 2] Bromide can also mean a commonplace or tiresome person, a bore ...
t. e. A proverb (from Latin: proverbium) or an adage is a simple, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and are an example of formulaic language. [ 1][ 2] A proverbial phrase or a proverbial expression is a type of a conventional saying similar to proverbs and ...