pleonasm

[plee-uh-naz-uh m]

See more synonyms for pleonasm on Thesaurus.com

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.

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-)

Related formsple·o·nas·tic, adjectiveple·o·nas·ti·cal·ly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for pleonasm

diffusion, rhetoric, redundancy, garrulity, copiousness, verbosity, circumlocution, diffuseness, verboseness, verbiage, loquacity, prolixity, repetition, logorrhea, tautology, loquaciousness, redundance, wordage

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 Language
Robert Gordon Latham
These are instances of pleonasm in the strictest sense of the term.
A Handbook of the English Language
Robert Gordon Latham
We have spoken of "true worship;" the expression is a pleonasm.
The Articles of Faith
James E. Talmage
The pleonasm is explained by the divergence of French and ME.
Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose
Various

British Dictionary definitions for pleonasm

pleonasm

noun rhetoric

the use of more words than necessary or an instance of this, such as a tiny little child
a word or phrase that is superfluous

Derived Formspleonastic, adjectivepleonastically, adverb

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 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for pleonasm

"redundancy in words," 1580s, from Late Latin pleonasmus, from Greek pleonasmos, from pleonazein "to be more than enough, to be superfluous," in grammatical use, "to add superfluously," from comb. form of pleon "more" (see pleio-).

pleonasm in Medicine

pleonasm

[plē′ə-năz′əm]

An excess in the number or size of parts.