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Webster 1913 Edition
Pleonasm
Ple′o-nasm
,,Noun.
[L.
pleonasmus
, Gr. [GREEK], fr. [GREEK] to be more than enough, to abound, fr.[GREEK], neut. of [GREEK], more, compar. of [GREEK] much. See Full
, a., and cf. Poly-
, Plus
.] (Rhet.)
Redundancy of language in speaking or writing; the use of more words than are necessary to express the idea;
as, I saw it
. with my own eyes
Webster 1828 Edition
Pleonasm
PLE'ONASM
,Noun.
Definition 2025
pleonasm
pleonasm
English
Noun
pleonasm (countable and uncountable, plural pleonasms)
- (uncountable, rhetoric) Redundancy in wording.
- 1993, Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man in Deptford,
- My salvation is in my Saviour who saveth me hence the redundancy and pleonasm of my asseveration.
- 1993, Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man in Deptford,
- (countable) A phrase involving pleonasm, that is, a phrase in which one or more words are redundant as their meaning is expressed elsewhere in the phrase.
- "The two of them are both the same" is a pleonasm (as the word "both" is redundant), as is the phrase "killed dead".
Related terms
Translations
redundancy in wording
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phrase involving pleonasm
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