Pleonasm - #497


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Jan 29 2019 25

Today’s word of the day is pleonasm, P-L-E-O-N-A-S-M. Pleonasm is a noun that means the excessive use of words.


Our word of the day began in Ancient Greece. The word pleonasmós (play on ESS moss) meant “I am superfluous.” Today pleonasm refers to a needlessly wordy use of words. 


When my English teacher told me I shouldn’t waste time being verbose and excessive and redundant while writing passages that were much more wordy than necessary, he seemed to be providing exactly the kind of pleonasm he was warning me against using.


Pleonasm is spelled P-L-E-O-N-A-S-M.