tautology

From Late Latin tautologia, from Ancient Greek ταὐτολογία (tautología) from ταὐτός (tautós, “the same”) + λόγος (lógos, “explanation”). By surface analysis, tauto- +‎ -logy.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /tɔˈtɒl.ə.d͡ʒi/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /tɔˈtɑl.ə.d͡ʒi/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒlədʒi

tautology (countable and uncountable, plural tautologies)

1. (uncountable) Redundant use of words, a pleonasm, an unnecessary and tedious repetition.

   It is tautology to say, "Forward Planning".

2. (countable) An expression that features tautology.

   The expression "raze to the ground" is a tautology, since the word "raze" includes the notion "to the ground".

   • 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy:

     Pure mathematics consists of tautologies, analogous to ‘men are men’, but usually more complicated.

3. (countable, logic, propositional logic) A statement that is true for all truth values of its propositional variables.
4. (countable, logic, first-order logic) A statement that is true for all truth values of its Boolean atoms.

• (antonym(s) of “linguistics: expression”): contradiction in terms
• (antonym(s) of “in logic”): contradiction
• (antonym(s) of “literary”): oxymoron

• (in logic): contingency, contradiction

• pleonasm
• redundancy
• Tautology on Wikipedia.Wikipedia