Platitude
['plætɪtjuːd] or ['plætɪtud]
Definition
(n.) The quality or state of being flat, thin, or insipid; flat commonness; triteness; staleness of ideas of language.
(n.) A thought or remark which is flat, dull, trite, or weak; a truism; a commonplace.
Editor: Wendell
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Insipidity, flatness, dulness, mawkishness.[2]. Twaddle, verbiage, palaver, trash, chatter, stuff, fudge, nonsense, moonshine, flummery, wish-wash, balderdash, jargon, nonsense, senseless prate, frothy discourse, idle talk.
Typed by Deirdre
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Commonplace, generality, truism, triviality
ANT:Sophism, laconism, enigma, dictum, oracle
Typist: Naomi
Definition
n. flatness: that which exhibits dullness of thought: an empty remark made as if it were important.—n. Platitudinā′rian one who indulges in platitudes.—adj. Platitū′dinous.
Checked by Bonnie
Unserious Contents or Definition
n. The fundamental element and special glory of popular literature. A thought that snores in words that smoke. The wisdom of a million fools in the diction of a dullard. A fossil sentiment in artificial rock. A moral without the fable. All that is mortal of a departed truth. A demi-tasse of milk-and-mortality. The Pope's-nose of a featherless peacock. A jelly-fish withering on the shore of the sea of thought. The cackle surviving the egg. A desiccated epigram.
Editor: Ryan
Examples
- For a platitude is generally inert wisdom. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- The two big parties have had to preserve a superficial homogeneity; and a platitude is more potent than an issue. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- The human impulses which create these social conditions, the human needs to which they are a sad and degraded answer--this human center of the problem the commission passes by with a platitude. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- The call for greater parental responsibility is, I fear, a rather empty platitude, for it is not re-enforced with anything but an ancient fervor. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Had they held fast to that, it would have ceased to be a platitude and have become a fertile idea. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Compared with this creative statesmanship, the administering of a routine or the battle for a platitude is a very simple affair. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- His speeches began to turn on platitudes--on the vague idealism and indisputable moralities of the Decalogue and the Sermon on the Mount. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- It was getting late, and we had no time to fool away on every ass that wanted to drivel Greek platitudes to us. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- In the past it has been an armory of platitudes or a forecast of punishments. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
Inputed by Hahn