pleonasm

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Note he won’t shout loudly – that’s known as a pleonasm, when more words than necessary are used.

From The Guardian • Apr. 29, 2019

The phrase 'think for one's self' is a pleonasm.

From Time Magazine Archive

"And, mamma," suddenly and acutely sensitive to pleonasm, "you begin every sentence with 'say' and you say 'certainly' so often."

From Star-Dust by Hurst, Fannie

Redundancy or pleonasm is the use of more words than are necessary to express the thought clearly.

From The Verbalist A Manual Devoted to Brief Discussions of the Right and the Wrong Use of Words and to Some Other Matters of Interest to Those Who Would Speak and Write with Propriety. by Osmun, Thomas Embly

If we say that it is the science of the spirit, we indulge in a useless pleonasm.

From The Reform of Education by Gentile, Giovanni