tautological

[ tawt-l-oj-i-kuhl ]

adjective

1. (of a phrase) needlessly repetitive without adding information or clarity:

   Third-world communist regimes, with tautological insistence, call themselves "people's democracies."

2. (especially in logic) defined in terms of itself:

   Some would argue that the phrase ''survival of the fittest'' is tautological, in that the fittest are defined as those that survive to reproduce.

Other Words From

• tau·to·log·i·cal·ly tau·tol·o·gous·ly adverb
• non·tau·to·log·i·cal adjective
• non·tau·to·log·i·cal·ly adverb
• un·tau·to·log·i·cal adjective
• un·tau·to·log·i·cal·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of tautological¹

tautolog(y) ( def ) + -ical ( def )

Example Sentences

A tautological sentence, perhaps, but one that nevertheless needs to be repeated and understood.

From The Daily Beast

The tautological blame always comes back to the claim that frivolous or even fraudulent lawsuits are commonplace.

From The Daily Beast

There is the tautological talker, or the human self-repeater.

From Project Gutenberg

It is called vulgar in English; and indeed the addition of here or there is generally tautological.

From Project Gutenberg

But the painter sometimes signed his name Franciscus Francia, a form which on Morelli's hypothesis would be tautological.

From Project Gutenberg

Therefore they give to the world the wholly vacuous, or merely tautological theory of causation—viz.

From Project Gutenberg

But at once we perceive that this is a tautological expression, for what I please to do is simply what I choose.

From Project Gutenberg