pleonasm
[plee-uh-naz-uh m]
noun
the use of more words than are necessary to express an idea; redundancy.
an instance of this, as free gift or true fact.
a redundant word or expression.
RELATED WORDS
diffusion, rhetoric, redundancy, garrulity, copiousness, verbosity, circumlocution, diffuseness, verboseness, verbiage, loquacity, prolixity, repetition, logorrhea, tautology, loquaciousness, redundance, wordage
Origin of pleonasm
1580–90; < Late Latin pleonasmus < Greek pleonasmós redundancy, surplus, derivative of pleonázein to be or have more than enough, itself derivative of pleíōn more (see pleo-)
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Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for pleonasm
Historical Examples of pleonasm
Ignorance of the true meaning of a word often leads to pleonasm.
The Romance of Words (4th ed.)Ernest Weekley
What is pleonasm in a single sentence is ellipsis in a double one.
A Handbook of the English LanguageRobert Gordon Latham
These are instances of pleonasm in the strictest sense of the term.
A Handbook of the English LanguageRobert Gordon Latham
We have spoken of "true worship;" the expression is a pleonasm.
The Articles of FaithJames E. Talmage
The pleonasm is explained by the divergence of French and ME.
pleonasm
noun rhetoric
Word Origin for pleonasm
C16: from Latin pleonasmus, from Greek pleonasmos excess, from pleonazein to be redundant
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
pleonasm
[plē′ə-năz′əm]
n.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.