Commonplace
['kɒmənpleɪs] or ['kɑmən'ples]
Definition
(adj.) not challenging; dull and lacking excitement; 'an unglamorous job greasing engines' .
(adj.) completely ordinary and unremarkable; 'air travel has now become commonplace'; 'commonplace everyday activities' .
Checked by Jessie--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Common; ordinary; trite; as, a commonplace person, or observation.
(n.) An idea or expression wanting originality or interest; a trite or customary remark; a platitude.
(n.) A memorandum; something to be frequently consulted or referred to.
(v. t.) To enter in a commonplace book, or to reduce to general heads.
(v. i.) To utter commonplaces; to indulge in platitudes.
Checked by Harriet
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. Trite, stale, hackneyed, ordinary, common, threadbare, not new, worn out.
Editor: Madge
Examples
- He was very earnest, and earnestness was always rather ridiculous, commonplace, to her. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Commonplace young ladies can be quite as hard as commonplace young gentlemen--quite as worldly and selfish. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- A few commonplace observations will help to explain its action. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- Except for Napoleon it seems to have been a thoroughly commonplace, hungry family. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- A very commonplace little murder, said he. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- It could lynch one as a moral monster, when as a matter of fact his ideals were commonplace; it could proclaim one a great benefactor when in truth he was a rather dull old gentleman. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- It was a perfectly commonplace letter--but it had one excellent effect on me. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- There still remained an arrest to be effected, but what were these commonplace rogues that he should soil his hands with them? Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- An other piece of commonplace knowledge--the cardinal points of the compass--may be accepted, likewise, without inquiry or without recognition of its importance. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- Machiavelli's ethics are commonplace enough. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- And this man I bent over--this commonplace, quiet stranger--how had he become involved in the web of horror? Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- Yet there is nothing strange or particularly disheartening about this commonplace observation: to expect anything else is to hope that a nation will lift itself by its own bootstraps. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- So full is the daily life of these things, and so much of a necessity have they all become, that their commonplace character dismisses them from conspicuous notice. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- Your Wellington is the most humdrum of commonplace martinets, whose slow, mechanical movements are further cramped by an ignorant home government. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- He was an elderly man, thin, demure, and commonplace--by no means the conception one forms of a Russian nobleman. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- They were familiar; many of them commonplaces--sun, moon, planets, weight, distance, mass, square of numbers. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- He was nervous and apparently in quite good spirits, chattering the conventional commonplaces. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
Checked by Laurie