Meaning & use
tautological
Last updated
Saying the same thing twice in different words, so that the statement is needlessly repetitive or logically empty.
See it in a sentence
'A free gift' is a tautological phrase, since gifts are free by definition.
The critic called the argument tautological because its conclusion simply restated its premise.
A note on using this word
Used especially in logic and rhetoric to criticize statements that appear to say something new but actually just repeat themselves.
Words with a similar meaning
redundantrepetitive
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Words with an opposite meaning
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