hackneyed
Americanadjective
adjective
Synonym Usage
See commonplace.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of hackneyed
Explanation
Hackneyed is a word for language that doesn't pack a punch since it's overused and trite. "Roses are red, violets are..." — enough already?! That's hackneyed stuff. Hackneyed is usually used to describe tired writing, but you can also refer to the hackneyed plots of television sit-coms or the hackneyed jokes of your Uncle Fred. But, most often, you will see hackneyed before the word phrase to refer to a specific cliché that is annoying the heck out of someone.
Vocabulary lists containing hackneyed
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Grade 12, List 2
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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.
Long after TV catchphrases became associated with hackneyed scripting, Picard unironically claimed a few of the best, including “make it so” and “engage,” delivering them each time with an air of aristocratic confidence.
From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2026
Kessler thought Spengler a “fat priest with a fat chin and brutal mouth” and his theories “the most hackneyed, trivial stuff,” but Kessler sensed the ominous turn in Germany’s cultural politics.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
Then, he satirizes conservatives’ discomfort with his Blackness by sitting silently as Martin Short, playing a nervous young Republican delivering a hackneyed diatribe, shudders in his presence before scampering offstage to fall apart.
From Salon ● Feb. 22, 2026
Unfortunately, though, Cooper can’t escape certain hackneyed biopic tropes in representing the songwriting, which are almost impossible to avoid.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2025
“But that expression of ‘violently in love’ is so hackneyed, so doubtful, so indefinite, that it gives me very little idea.
From "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
