Link Centre Dictionary

pleonasm

pleo·nasm

UK/ˈpliː.əˌnæz.əm/ US/ˈpliʌˌnæzʌm/ uncommon

noun

1.

using more words than necessary

  • “a tiny little child”

Origin

Learned borrowing from Late Latin pleonasmus, from Ancient Greek πλεονασμός (pleonasmós), from πλεονάζω (pleonázō, “to be superfluous”), from πλείων (pleíōn, “more”).

Phrases

  • English pleonastic compounds
  • Pleonastic compounds by language

Related words

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.