as in repetition
a statement in which you repeat a word, idea, etc., in a way that is not necessary
"A beginner who has just started" is a tautology.
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Recent Examples of tautology
Sadaf spouts a tautology — faith as faith — that also holds for patriotism.
—
Armond White, National Review, 22 Jan. 2025
Yes, a win is a win, but tautologies aside, for the Niners, a win with Purdy playing like one of the finest quarterbacks in the NFL on Sunday would speak volumes.
—Dieter Kurtenbach, The Mercury News, 25 Oct. 2024
In this tautology, the act of spending is proof that the spending is justified.
—Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 17 Oct. 2024
The goal was to market something in every category, which led to the occasional tautology.
—Andrew Cockburn, Harper's Magazine, 22 Aug. 2024
In other words, the industry is asking the world to engage in something like a trillion-dollar tautology: AI’s world-transformative potential justifies spending any amount of resources, because its evangelists will spend any amount to make AI transform the world.
—Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 29 July 2024
In his world view, doomed romanticism isn’t an oxymoron but a tautology: to experience love deep within one’s bones comes at the cost of one’s earthly comforts and worldly aspirations, even one’s life.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 17 Apr. 2024
At first, the subjective theory might be misunderstood as a tautology – market goods are worth what people will pay for them.
—Dave Birnbaum, Forbes, 19 Feb. 2024
Too often, analysts of these anticorruption drives fall into a tautology, assuming that anyone purged for graft by an autocrat must have been an enemy of the autocrat to begin with—otherwise, why would they have been purged?
—Andrew Leber, Foreign Affairs, 15 Nov. 2017
Armond White, National Review, 22 Jan. 2025
Yes, a win is a win, but tautologies aside, for the Niners, a win with Purdy playing like one of the finest quarterbacks in the NFL on Sunday would speak volumes.
—Dieter Kurtenbach, The Mercury News, 25 Oct. 2024
In this tautology, the act of spending is proof that the spending is justified.
—Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 17 Oct. 2024
The goal was to market something in every category, which led to the occasional tautology.
—Andrew Cockburn, Harper's Magazine, 22 Aug. 2024
In other words, the industry is asking the world to engage in something like a trillion-dollar tautology: AI’s world-transformative potential justifies spending any amount of resources, because its evangelists will spend any amount to make AI transform the world.
—Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 29 July 2024
In his world view, doomed romanticism isn’t an oxymoron but a tautology: to experience love deep within one’s bones comes at the cost of one’s earthly comforts and worldly aspirations, even one’s life.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 17 Apr. 2024
At first, the subjective theory might be misunderstood as a tautology – market goods are worth what people will pay for them.
—Dave Birnbaum, Forbes, 19 Feb. 2024
Too often, analysts of these anticorruption drives fall into a tautology, assuming that anyone purged for graft by an autocrat must have been an enemy of the autocrat to begin with—otherwise, why would they have been purged?
—Andrew Leber, Foreign Affairs, 15 Nov. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tautology
Noun
-
Take a one- or two-minute break between repetitions, repeating one or two times.—
Dana Santas,
CNN,
12 Mar. 2025
-
While some people initially took Trump’s comments about Canada becoming the 51st state as a joke, his constant repetition means Canadians are no longer laughing, Kahlon said.—
Josh Fellman,
Quartz,
10 Mar. 2025
Noun
-
Please ignore the exaggerated political hyperbole and keep in mind her passion for helping others.—
Josh Hammer,
Newsweek,
20 Mar. 2025
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While The Charlotte Observer cannot confirm or deny the hyperbole, two things can be proven in regards to the downtown main street: infrastructure construction is complete and many more people are calling Union Street home.—
Desiree Mathurin,
Charlotte Observer,
24 Feb. 2025
Noun
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An architecture-first approach helps mitigate many of these redundancies and their disruptive follow-on consequences.—
Balvinder Singh Banjardar,
Forbes,
17 Mar. 2025
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Taiwan also needs to increase redundancy in its energy sector.—
Daniel Byman,
Foreign Affairs,
13 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Tautology.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tautology. Accessed 24 Mar. 2025.
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