tautology
/tɔːˈtɒləd͡ʒi/ noun
Forms tautologies
- noun (uncountable, rhetoric) Redundant use of words, a pleonasm, an unnecessary and tedious repetition. “It is tautology to say, "Forward Planning".”
- noun (countable, rhetoric) An expression that features tautology.
- noun (countable, logic, propositional logic) A statement that is true for all truth values of its propositional variables.
- noun (countable, logic, first-order logic) A statement that is true for all truth values of its Boolean atoms.
Antonyms
Etymology
From Late Latin tautologia, from Ancient Greek ταὐτολογία (tautología) from ταὐτός (tautós, “the same”) + λόγος (lógos, “explanation”). By surface analysis, tauto- + -logy.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A repetition of the same meaning in different words; needless repetition of an idea in different words or phrases; a representation of anything as the cause, condition, or consequence of itself, as in the following lines: -- The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers, And heavily in clouds brings on the day. Addison.
Etymology [L. tautologia, Gr. tautologie.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “tautology”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details