Pleonasm is using more words than necessary; redundancy in wording; the use of more words (or even word-parts) than necessary to express an idea clearly. A closely related concept is rhetorical tautology, in which essentially the same thing is said more than once in different words.
What a wonderful word! And perfect for me. I used to get teased when I was working because I never could write a short memo -- I always had to give everyone all the nuances.
ReplyDeleteCanadian Chickadee
Ah. You've arrived at one of my favourite words. I once manageged to discomfit a pedant by pointing out that I had not, as he suggested, been tautological although I pled guilty to being pleonastic.
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