English Explanatory Dictionary

commonplace

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Ordinary; not having any remarkable characteristics.
noun
  1. A platitude or cliché.
  2. Something that is ordinary; something commonly done or occurring.
  3. A memorandum; something to be frequently consulted or referred to.
  4. A commonplace book.
verb
  1. To make a commonplace book.
  2. To enter in a commonplace book, or to reduce to general heads.
  3. To utter commonplaces; to indulge in platitudes.

Pronunciation

/ˈkɑmənˌpleɪs/ /ˈkɒmənˌpleɪs/ en-us-commonplace.ogg en-GB-commonplace.ogg

Word forms

commonplace more commonplace most commonplace common place common-place commonplaces commonplacing commonplaced

Etymology

A calque of Latin locus commūnis, referring to a generally applicable literary passage, itself a calque of Ancient Greek κοινὸς τόπος (koinòs tópos).

Synonyms

routine undistinguished unexceptional quotidian banal bathetic bromidic cheesy clichéd commonplace corny dog-eared hackneyed hoary overdone overused overworked pat played out shopworn stale threadbare timeworn tired trite warmed-over well-worn average medial basic bog-standard common common-and-garden common-or-garden congruent consistent conventional customary everyday expected garden variety improminent mundane natural normal ordinary par for the course plain plain vanilla regular run-of-the-mill standard standard issue typical unremarkable unstrange usual vulgar wakeaday workaday

Antonyms

distinguished inimitable unique

Related words

commonplace book

Derived words

commonplaceism commonplacely commonplaceness commonplacer uncommonplace
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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