Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Characterized by or of the nature of tautology: as, tautological expressions.

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

  • adjective Involving tautology; having the same signification.
  • adjective an echo that repeats the same sound or syllable many times.

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

  • adjective of, relating to, or using tautology
  • adjective using repetition or excessive wordiness; pleonastic or circumlocutionary

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

  • adjective repetition of same sense in different words

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Oh, and 'tautology' or 'tautological' is used in two other places in that piece.

    Archive 2007-05-01 2007

  • Conventional women -- but was not the phrase tautological?

    Born in Exile George Gissing 1880

  • I think you should be able to recognize that so far, you have only made what I would call a tautological argument.

    Waldo's Virginia Political Blogroll 2009

  • She believes that it is "tautological" to say that "Beethoven's compositional practice was 'more powerful and more effective than that of any of his contemporaries."'

    Beethoven's Genius: An Exchange DeNora, Tia 1997

  • … maybe, but most of “Key to the Scriptures” is the same kind of tautological gibberish.

    My offer to discuss ID with Dembski - The Panda's Thumb 2006

  • short views for goodness sake said....."tautological" ,my how can it get any better than this.

    Comment Registration: The Experiment Ends Early 2007

  • Taggart also collects examples into wider themes such as how names evolve "through mumbling and confusion", the Norwegian influence on the northwest, tautological placenames "Bredon" means "hill hill", and placenames we might snigger at, though they have "perfectly sensible derivations": Badgers Mount, Great Snoring, Nasty, and Ogle.

    Et cetera: non-fiction roundup 2011

  • Taggart also collects examples into wider themes such as how names evolve "through mumbling and confusion", the Norwegian influence on the northwest, tautological placenames "Bredon" means "hill hill", and placenames we might snigger at, though they have "perfectly sensible derivations": Badgers Mount, Great Snoring, Nasty, and Ogle.

    Et cetera: non-fiction roundup 2011

  • This, however, is both tautological and of little strategic value.

    Lincoln Mitchell: What Is the Democratic Party Base? Lincoln Mitchell 2010

  • Not sure what your point is, as you can make terrible tautological arguments with regard to any system.

    Matthew Yglesias » By Request: The Case for Parliamentarism 2009

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