Pleonasm
From Hull AWE
Revision as of 15:15, 7 January 2008 by JoachimNoreiko (Talk | contribs)
Pleonasm (adjective pleonastic) is classified as a Figure of speech. Sometimes it is merely a critical term for a kind of bad writing.
Pleonasm is the use of unnecessary words, “The use of more words in a sentence than are necessary to express the meaning†acording to OED, which quotes the example "a false lie". This is a pleonasm because a lie is, by definition, false. Pleonasm may be used deliberately, for emphasis; but it is often a fault of style.
