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Use tautology in a sentence

Tautology Definition

  • (logic) a statement that is necessarily true; "the statement `he is brave or he is not brave' is a tautology"
  • useless repetition; "to say that something is `adequate enough' is a tautology"

Sentence Examples

A tautological humpback.

This expression is tautological.

Iteration is not tautology.

Trouble finds ease in tautology.

"Equally the same" is tautology.

The phrase is tautological but very emphatic.

It abounds in tautology and repetitions.

The expressive parrot was growing tautological.

Lucian's tautological genius fails him for once.

This appears tautological, but it also seems sincere.

The text is not a mere tautology or repetition.

Repeating the same thing in different words; tautological.

Weston, indifferent to tautology in his excitement.

Crude incoherencies . . . and nauseous tautologies.

That was a point; could not tautology accentuate it?

This is sometimes indulged at the risk of tautology.

The exuberant expression is not tautological, but emotional.

Larum here seems to be tautological, perhaps a scribal error.

There is the tautological talker, or the human self-repeater.

These, it may be said, are simple and tautological statements.

Keep your ideas clear and distinct, and avoid tautology.

We are far too tolerant with respect to such tautologies.

When there is a tautology, we attain truth by definition.

The expression sounds trite and tautological; but it needs emphasis.

In truth, the statement that substance is permanent, is tautological.

No tautology is to be found and no attempt at ornate expression.


"There she goes all alone, to walk by herself," she said, tautologically.

It was a breathless and tautological remark, but it relieved her feelings.

Tautology is to be avoided by all who make any pretense to grammar.

Gross tautology: He had an entire monopoly of the whole fruit trade.

The only point on which remark open to criticism is that it is tautological.

But they are by no means tautology or useless and aimless repetition.

Tautological echo, an echo that repeats the same sound or syllable many times.

He utterly despised the avoidance of repetitions out of fear of tautology.

Is this to say that the principle has no meaning and vanishes in a tautology?

He is likely to express himself in a tautological, careless, or even illogical fashion.

All religious speculative cosmogony is tautology, as is apparent from this example.

I never copy what I write to you, so I may be often tautological, or perhaps contradictory.

It runs over in synonyms for sin and its forgiveness, which are not feeble tautology.

Indeed, words would have seemed mere tautology to anyone who could have seen his eyes.

He says, “I can do what I will, but to say I can will what I will is an empty tautology.”

Another quality in which modern are superior to ancient languages is freedom from tautology.

Literally, the phrase "Think for yourself" is tautological; any thinking is thinking for one's self.

These two precepts are not mere tautology, but the second of them is the ground of the first.

Is it less tautology to describe a thing over and over again with lines, than it is with words?

—A special form of wordiness is tautology—the useless repetition of an idea in different words.

Here is unquestionably a tautology, since to shield and to shelter convey precisely the same idea.

In that sense it is a tautology to say that property (appropriation) is a condition of production.

OF COURSE a GOOD act of will is good; that is a mere tautology, and gives us no guidance whatever.

The copiousness of her vocabulary of abuse surprised herself, and she did not shrink from tautology.

Nobody that I remember criticized the tautological expression, "The progress of this army must be forward."

His works cover nearly 40 volumes, often obscure, often tautological, and with no great distinction of style.


The repetition of the "you" is emphatic, not tautological, and is demanded by the whole meaning of the passage.

The fixed, impregnable, so-called apodictical facts are nothing but tautologies, if seen at close range.

Repression yet, resorting to memory to define identity may appear to be a circular (even tautological) argument.

Now "calm serenity" is bad tautology, and the general assertion of this passage is equally open to censure.

"Love a beautiful person nobly, but be sure you love her," says our social wisdom with interesting tautology.

MacGregor at once proceeded to read the document, which abounded in pompous tautology and redundant sentences.

The academical syllogism as defined—not always as presented—contains two fallacies, one of which is tautology.

If we add to the premises, 'One man was Socrates, therefore one man was poor and wise,' we have a tautological fallacy.

It may not, however, be superfluous to point out a little more precisely the special form his tautology assumes.

The declaration itself, though it may be chargeable with tautology or redundancy, is at least perfectly harmless.

In aiming to secure sentence emphasis, then, we should avoid circumlocution, redundancy, tautology, and verbosity.

This is the substance of the sentence, amplified by repetitions and exasperating tautology into thirty or forty pages.

As the tautology shews (sic) the poverty of my genius, it likewise shews the extent of your empire over my imagination.

For the essential necessity of accuracy is of far greater importance than any desire to be brief, or to avoid tautology.

Because we have dared to copy down, word for word, what was said at breakfast, our heroine has revealed herself as tautological.

The Doctor attempted to speak, but his voice was soon drowned by the Stentorian lungs and tautological verbiage of his opponent.

A trigonometrical proposition, often thought over, becomes a tautological one; an oft-read conceit, stale; an old truth, indifferent.

The character of this Prince has been so amply displayed in the course of this work, that it were tautology to recapitulate it.

This is precisely what must be answered, if we do not wish to fall into tautology, and the reply cannot be the question itself.

But in these cases the words 'metal' and 'body' are unmistakable tautology, since 'metal' is implied in gold and 'body' in sun.

When they grow up and have ideas which are beyond their powers of expression, especially in writing, tautology begins to appear.

Pure logic could never lead us to anything but tautologies; it could create nothing new; not from it alone can any science issue.

Ricardo’s theory of money was exceedingly convenient, because it lends a tautology the semblance of a statement of causal connection.

"It has been contended," says Professor Baden Powell, "that in one sense it is mere tautology to say that Design implies a Designer."

Tautologies will occur, because the ear, in demanding fresh emphasis, has forgotten that the desired force has been already expressed.

Now if you will look at that phrase "The Best Modern Criticism" you will see at once that it simply teems with assumption and tautology.


The tautology of the definition means that the concept is equal only to itself and cannot be resolved into another or explained by another.

To give emphasis and additional effect to his words the god is made to speak tautologically so that the most unlettered man may not miss their meaning.

And unless tautology, anachronisms, and contradictions are a proof of inspiration, much less could it have been written by a single inspired writer.

We are uttering a mere tautology if we mean by 'in the mind' the same as by 'before the mind', i.e. if we mean merely being apprehended by the mind.

The fear of tautology has doubtless led to the multiplications of words and the meanings of words, and generally to an enlargement of the vocabulary.

The whole of this objection is but another expression of the tautology: that there can no longer be any wage-labour when there is no longer any capital.

To speak of the goodness of God, either implies that there is such a quality as goodness, to which the Divine acts conform, or it is an unmeaning tautology.