Word.ws English Dictionary

cliche

/kliˈʃeɪ/

cliche is the alternative form of cliché.

Meaning of cliché

Noun

cliché (plural clichés)

  1. (rhetoric) Something, most often a phrase or expression, that is overused or used outside its original context, so that its original impact and meaning are lost. A trite saying; a platitude.
    • The villain kidnapping the love interest is a bit of a cliché.
  2. A stereotype (printing plate).

See all 4 meanings of cliché

Forms of cliche

Noun
pluralcliches
Verb
third-person singular presentcliches
present participleclicheing
past participlecliched
pastcliched

Questions about cliche

What is cliche the alternative form of?
Cliche is the alternative form of cliché.
How do you pronounce cliche?
Cliche is pronounced /kliˈʃeɪ/ (US).

Words near cliche in the dictionary

  1. clianthus
  2. clianthuses
  3. Clibburn
  4. clibucaine
  5. Cliburn
  6. cliche
  7. cliche'
  8. cliched
  9. clicheing
  10. cliches
  11. Clichy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cliche (page history and authors); cliché (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-cliche.ogg.

Cite this entry: “cliche.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cliche. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.