Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Relating to or characterized by platitude or platitudes; stale; trite; flat; dull; insipid.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Abounding in platitudes; of the nature of platitudes; uttering platitudes.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Characterised by cliches or platitudes.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective dull and tiresome but with pretensions of significance or originality

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From platitude + -in- +‎ -ous, probably after multitudinous.

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Examples

  • Here's hoping that he learns from his mistakes, that he remembers that practice makes perfect and that he keeps that kind of platitudinous thinking out of his next effort.

    In Sports As in Life 2010

  • I think she has to come back to the country and voters in Ohio and Texas and beyond in a more emotional way, reconnect with them emotionally, not come out and give these kind of platitudinous kind of speech she gave.

    CNN Transcript Feb 19, 2008 2008

  • But this advantage also can be a disadvantage: Missteps such as platitudinous morality, piety, and cant are simply of no interest to such readers.

    The recommended daily allowance M-mv 2004

  • But this advantage also can be a disadvantage: Missteps such as platitudinous morality, piety, and cant are simply of no interest to such readers.

    06.04 M-mv 2004

  • But this advantage also can be a disadvantage: Missteps such as platitudinous morality, piety, and cant are simply of no interest to such readers.

    Archive 2004-06-01 M-mv 2004

  • It would be very foolish if I came and addressed an audience like you and if I just gave you a certain amount of good feeling and a general kind of platitudinous blah.

    Britain in 1971 1971

  • I don’t know if Sotomayor is following the standard evasive script or not, but I hope she doesn’t, and I hope that the Senate in general doesn’t let future nominees get away with the kind of platitudinous non-answers we’ve been getting from recent nominees.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » More Questions for Sotomayor: 2009

  • I meant for the father's "wisdom," which Talcott recalls at various points in the book to be ironic, even platitudinous, although always containing a grain of truth.

    >A Conversation with Stephen L. Carter, author of The Emperor of Ocean Park 2010

  • It was the old Time formula that I remembered from more than 50 years ago when I tired of and stopped reading its treacle that recorded every week the latest milestone in the inexorable march of mid-America toward its apotheosis of gelatinous, platitudinous, universal, and permanent embourgeoisement: a premonitory Pleasantville.

    Conrad Black: Time's Fatuous and Egregious Coverage of Wall Street Prosecutor Conrad Black 2012

  • It was the old Time formula that I remembered from more than 50 years ago when I tired of and stopped reading its treacle that recorded every week the latest milestone in the inexorable march of mid-America toward its apotheosis of gelatinous, platitudinous, universal, and permanent embourgeoisement: a premonitory Pleasantville.

    Conrad Black: Time's Fatuous and Egregious Coverage of Wall Street Prosecutor Conrad Black 2012

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