- commonplace
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—commonplacely, adv. —commonplaceness, n./kom"euhn plays'/, adj.1. ordinary; undistinguished or uninteresting; without individuality: a commonplace person.2. trite; hackneyed; platitudinous: a commonplace remark.n.3. a well-known, customary, or obvious remark; a trite or uninteresting saying.4. anything common, ordinary, or uninteresting.5. Archaic. a place or passage in a book or writing noted as important for reference or quotation.[1525-35; trans. of L locus communis, itself trans. of Gk koinòs tópos]Syn. 2. COMMONPLACE, BANAL, HACKNEYED, STEREOTYPED, TRITE describe words, remarks, and styles of expression that are lifeless and uninteresting. COMMONPLACE characterizes thought that is dull, ordinary, and platitudinous: commonplace and boring. Something is BANAL that seems inane, insipid, and pointless: a heavy-handed and banal affirmation of the obvious. HACKNEYED characterizes something that seems stale and worn out through overuse: a hackneyed comparison.STEREOTYPED emphasizes the fact that situations felt to be similar invariably call for the same thought in exactly the same form and the same words: so stereotyped as to seem automatic. TRITE describes something that was originally striking and apt, but which has become so well-known and been so commonly used that all interest has been worn out of it: true but trite. 3. cliché, bromide, platitude, stereotype.
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Universalium. 2010.