tautological
(of a phrase) needlessly repetitive without adding information or clarity:Third-world communist regimes, with tautological insistence, call themselves "people's democracies."
(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.
Origin of tautological
1- Also tau·tol·o·gous [taw-tol-uh-guhs] /tɔˈtɒl ə gəs/ .
- Sometimes tau·to·log·ic [tawt-l-oj-ik] /ˌtɔt lˈɒdʒ ɪk/ .
Other words from tautological
- 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
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use tautological in a sentence
To say that, if it increases, his wages increase is to be simply tautologous.
The English Utilitarians, Volume II (of 3) | Leslie StephenThe phrase pre-established harmony is, strictly speaking, tautologous.
Or if the first expression be preferred, the second may be omitted, as perfectly tautologous.
I am (to adopt a phrase which is to me tautologous) an orthodox Jew.'
The Grandchildren of the Ghetto | Israel ZangwillAnd the tautologous, useless nature of the hypothesis in the second forces the theory back to the first view.
Creative Intelligence | John Dewey, Addison W. Moore, Harold Chapman Brown, George H. Mead, Boyd H. Bode, Henry Waldgrave, Stuart James, Hayden Tufts, Horace M. Kallen
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