Adjacent Words

Commonplace definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

COMMONPLACE, n. A memorandum; a common topic.
COMMONPLACE, v.t. To enter in a commonplace-book, or to reduce to general heads.
Commonplace-book, a book in which are registered such facts, opinions or observations as are deemed worthy of notice or remembrance, so disposed that any one may be easily found. Hence common-place as used as an epithet to denote what is common or often repeated, or trite; as a commonplace observation.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: completely ordinary and unremarkable; "air travel has now become commonplace"; "commonplace everyday activities"
2: not challenging; dull and lacking excitement; "an unglamorous job greasing engines" [syn: commonplace, humdrum, prosaic, unglamorous, unglamourous]
3: repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse; "bromidic sermons"; "his remarks were trite and commonplace"; "hackneyed phrases"; "a stock answer"; "repeating threadbare jokes"; "parroting some timeworn axiom"; "the trite metaphor `hard as nails'" [syn: banal, commonplace, hackneyed, old-hat, shopworn, stock, threadbare, timeworn, tired, trite, well-worn] n
1: a trite or obvious remark [syn: platitude, cliche, banality, commonplace, bromide]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: translation of Latin locus communis widely applicable argument, translation of Greek koinos topos Date: 1561 1. archaic a striking passage entered in a commonplace book 2. a. an obvious or trite comment ; truism b. something commonly found II. adjective Date: 1609 commonly found or seen ; ordinary, unremarkable <a commonplace occurrence> <the large mergers that had become commonplace> • commonplaceness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & n. --adj. lacking originality; trite. --n. 1 a an everyday saying; a platitude (uttered a commonplace about the weather). b an ordinary topic of conversation. 2 anything usual or trite. 3 a notable passage in a book etc. copied into a commonplace-book. Phrases and idioms: commonplace-book a book into which notable extracts from other works are copied for personal use. Derivatives: commonplaceness n. Etymology: transl. of L locus communis = Gk koinos topos general theme

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Commonplace Com"mon*place`, v. t. To enter in a commonplace book, or to reduce to general heads. --Felton.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Commonplace Com"mon*place`, a. Common; ordinary; trite; as, a commonplace person, or observation.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Commonplace Com"mon*place`, n. 1. An idea or expression wanting originality or interest; a trite or customary remark; a platitude. 2. A memorandum; something to be frequently consulted or referred to. Whatever, in my reading, occurs concerning this our fellow creature, I do never fail to set it down by way of commonplace. --Swift. Commonplace book, a book in which records are made of things to be remembered.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Commonplace Com"mon*place`, v. i. To utter commonplaces; to indulge in platitudes. [Obs.] --Bacon.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(commonplaces) 1. If something is commonplace, it happens often or is often found, and is therefore not surprising. Foreign vacations have become commonplace... ADJ: usu v-link ADJ 2. A commonplace is a remark or opinion that is often expressed and is therefore not original or interesting. It is a commonplace to say that Northern Ireland is a backwater in the modern Europe. N-COUNT: usu sing

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Trite, stale, hackneyed, ordinary, common, threadbare, not new, worn out.

Moby Thesaurus

Attic, Babbittish, Philistine, Spartan, abstraction, accustomed, ascetic, austere, average, back-number, bald, banal, banality, bare, baseborn, below the salt, bewhiskered, bourgeois, bromide, bromidic, campy, candid, chaste, chestnut, classic, classical, cliche, cliched, cockney, common, commonly known, commonplace expression, conventional, corn, corny, current, customary, cut-and-dried, direct, dry, dull, everyday, fade, familiar, familiar tune, flat, frank, fusty, garden, garden-variety, general, general idea, generalization, generalized proposition, glittering generality, habitual, hackney, hackneyed, hackneyed expression, hackneyed saying, high-camp, homely, homespun, household, humble, humdrum, inanity, insipid, kitschy, lean, lieu commun, locus communis, low, low-camp, lowborn, lowbred, lowly, matter-of-fact, mean, middle-class, moth-eaten, mundane, musty, natural, neat, no great shakes, nonclerical, nondescript, normal, normative, notorious, old hat, old joke, old saw, old song, old story, open, ordinary, overworked, pedestrian, plain, plain-speaking, plain-spoken, plastic, platitude, platitudinous, plebeian, poetryless, pop, popular, predominating, prescriptive, prevailing, prevalent, prosaic, prosaicism, prosaism, prose, prosing, prosy, proverbial, public, pure, pure and simple, regular, regulation, reiteration, retold story, rubber stamp, rude, run-of-mine, run-of-the-mill, rustic, set, severe, shabby-genteel, shallowness, shibboleth, shopworn, simple, simple-speaking, sober, spare, square, stale, standard, stark, stereotype, stereotyped, stereotyped saying, stock, straightforward, suburban, sweeping statement, tag, talked-about, talked-of, third-estate, threadbare, timeworn, tired, tired cliche, tiresome, trite, trite saying, triteness, triticism, truism, truistic, twice-told tale, typical, unadorned, unaffected, unembellished, uneventful, unexceptional, ungenteel, unidealistic, unimaginative, unimpassioned, universal, universally admitted, universally recognized, unnoteworthy, unoriginal, unpoetic, unpoetical, unremarkable, unromantic, unspectacular, unvarnished, usual, vapid, vernacular, vulgar, warmed-over, well-kenned, well-known, well-recognized, well-understood, well-worn, widely known, wishy-washiness, wonted, workaday, workday, worn, worn thin, worn-out