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

Buah pala, the Malay phrase for the “nutmeg,” is in strictness a pleonasm, for phala signifies “fruit” in Sanskrit, as buah does in Malay.

From A Manual of the Malay language With an Introductory Sketch of the Sanskrit Element in Malay by Maxwell, William Edward, Sir

It must express the idea better and in another way, else it will be only a pleonasm, an after conception of bad taste, a hindrance rather than an aid to intelligible expression.

From Delsarte System of Oratory by Various

This is implied in the omitted words, which Mr. Reddie—whose omission would have been dishonest if he had seen their meaning—no doubt took for pleonasm, superfluity, overmuchness.

From A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume II by Smith, David Eugene