Pablum

American  

[pab-luhm] / ˈpæb ləm /

Trademark.

1. a brand of soft, bland cereal for infants.

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noun

1. (lowercase) trite, naive, or simplistic ideas or writings; intellectual pap.

Pablum British  

/ ˈpɑːbləm /

noun

1. a cereal food for infants, developed in Canada

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Usage

What does pablum mean? Pablum is a noun referring to ideas, speech, writing, or other media that are bland or simplistic or that lack any real intellectual substance or value.The term pablum comes directly from the brand name Pablum, which manufactured a children’s cereal known for being bland and easily digestible.Example: Celebrity news is the sort of pablum that distracts people from the actual issues happening in our world.

Example Sentences

“Porridge? Mushy peas? Pablum? Oh, let me guess, it’s tapioca isn’t it? Is it tapioca? Or are we calling it rice pudding tonight?”

From Literature

The former CIA analyst recalled a House hearing on intelligence which featured some 10 bureaucrats he described as a ” mob of intelligence officials spouting the same watered-down Pablum.”

From Washington Times

I smelt a mingling of Pablum and sour milk and salt-cod-stinky diapers and felt sorrowful and tender.

From Literature

Did they appreciate how a country girl mastered the Pablum pop idiom of the early 1950s and set it gently aflame?

From Time

Pablum tarted up with tennis racquets, “16-Love” is, in a sense, the perfect movie for teenagers: you can text and tweet to your heart’s content and never miss a thing.

From New York Times