pleonasm

Noun

pleonasm (countable and uncountable, plural pleonasms)

1. (rhetoric, uncountable) Redundancy in wording.
   • St. Jerome and St. Augustine are both sparing in the employment of the device of pleonasm.1939, John Nicholas Hritzu, The Style of the Letters of St. Jerome, Catholic University of America Press, page 5
   • Indeed, pleonasm, the use of superfluous or redundant words, is only part of the broader features of that style, the expressions of which have been so thoroughly analyzed by Franz Neirynck² and which for convenience will here be referred to as "dualisms."1989, Harold Riley, The Making of Mark: An Exploration, Mercer University Press, page 219
2. (countable) A phrase involving pleonasm; a phrase containing one or more words which are redundant because their meaning is expressed elsewhere in the phrase.