Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Platitude |
PlatitudeNoun1. A trite or obvious remark. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "platitude" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1615. (references) |
Etymology: Platitude \Plat"i*tude\, noun. [French expression, from plat flat. See Plate.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | PLATITUDE, n. The fundamental element and special glory of popular literature. A thought that snores in words that smoke. The wisdom of a million fools in the diction of a dullard. A fossil sentiment in artificial rock. A moral without the fable. All that is mortal of a departed truth. A demi-tasse of milk-and-mortality. The Pope's-nose of a featherless peacock. A jelly-fish withering on the shore of the sea of thought. The cackle surviving the egg. A desiccated epigram. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: PlatitudeSynonyms: banality (n), bromide (n), cliche (n), commonplace (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Dullness | Prose, matter of fact; heavy book, conte a dormir debout;prose, matter of fact; heavy book, conte a dormir debout; platitude. |
Unmeaningness | Nonsense, utter nonsense, gibberish; jargon, jabber, mere words, hocus-pocus, fustian, rant, bombast, balderdash, palaver, flummery, verbiage, babble, baverdage, baragouin, platitude, niaiserie; inanity; flap-doodle; rigmarole, rodomontade; truism; nugae canorae; twaddle, twattle, fudge, trash, garbage, humbug; stuff, stuff and nonsense; bosh, rubbish, moonshine, wish-wash, fiddle-faddle; absurdity; vagueness; (unintelligibility). |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Platitude |
| Specialty definitions using "platitude": Applause ♦ Dullard ♦ FOOL. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Platitude" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Dutch (banality, pattern, platitude, stencil, template), French (baldness, dullness, flatness, platitude, triviality), Russian (truism). |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.
| Author | Quotation |
Oscar Wilde | In modern life nothing produces such an effect as a good platitude. It makes the whole world kin. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | DULLARD, n. A member of the reigning dynasty in letters and life. The Dullards came in with Adam, and being both numerous and sturdy have overrun the habitable world. The secret of their power is their insensibility to blows; tickle them with a bludgeon and they laugh with a platitude. The Dullards came originally from Boeotia, whence they were driven by stress of starvation, their dullness having blighted the crops. For some centuries they infested Philistia, and many of them are called Philistines to this day. In the turbulent times of the Crusades they withdrew thence and gradually overspread all Europe, occupying most of the high places in politics, art, literature, science and theology. Since a detachment of Dullards came over with the Pilgrims in the Mayflower and made a favorable report of the country, their increase by birth, immigration, and conversion has been rapid and steady. According to the most trustworthy statistics the number of adult Dullards in the United States is but little short of thirty millions, including the statisticians. The intellectual centre of the race is somewhere about Peoria, Illinois, but the New England Dullard is the most shockingly moral. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Platitude" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Platitude" is used about 25 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 25 | 69,787 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "platitude": pious platitude. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
platitude | 5 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "platitude"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | banaliteit (banality, triteness, triviality). (various references) | |
Albanian | rëndomësi (poorness, vapidity, vulgarism, vulgarity), banalitet (banality, commonness, salacity). (various references) | |
Arabic | مكان عام (commonplace, public place, tag), قول مبتذل, تفاهة (banality, inanity, insignificance, insignificancy, insipidity, nothingness, nullity, pettiness, prosaism, triviality), إبتذال (prosaism, prose, routine, triteness, triviality). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | глупава забележка (commonplace), баналност (baldness, banality, commonness, nothingness, truism), банална забележка, плоска забележка, изтъркана фраза (clichй, stock phrase). (various references) | |
Chinese | 平凡 (unremarkable). (various references) | |
Czech | plochost (flatness), všednost (familiarity, triviality), mìlkost, fráze (cant, cliché, phrase, phrases). (various references) | |
Dutch | platitude (banality, pattern, stencil, template), patroon (banality, boss, cartridge, master, patron, pattern, stencil, template, templet), sjabloon (banality, pattern, stencil, template, templet), gemeenplaats (banality, cliché, stereotype), banaliteit (banality, pattern, stencil, template, triteness, triviality), alledaagsheid (banality, triteness, triviality). (various references) | |
Esperanto | banaleco (banality, triteness, triviality), banalaĵo (banality). (various references) | |
Farsi | پیش پاافتادگی (Triviality), ابتذال (Triviality, Truism), بیمزگی (Vapidity), بیاتی . (various references) | |
French | platitude, patron, modèle, lieu commun (common place). (various references) | |
German | Platitüde (bromide). (various references) | |
Greek | κοινοτυπία (truism), κοινοτοπία (banality, clichι, commonplace, triteness), σαχλαμάρα (bosh, bunk, foolery, idiocy, mush, stupidity, trifle). (various references) | |
Hebrew | אמר" "וש". (various references) | |
Hungarian | közhely (banality, bromide, claptrap, cliché, commonplace, hackneyed phrase, stock phrase, tag, topic, triteness, truism). (various references) | |
Italian | banalit (banality, commonplace, insignificance, insignificancy, triteness, trivia, triviality). (various references) | |
Manx | shenn-raa follym. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | atitudeplay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | vulgaridade (banality, commonness, flatness, triviality, vulgarism, vulgarity), banalidade (banality, commonplace, trifling, triteness, triviality, truism, whimsy). (various references) | |
Romanian | platitudine (baldness, bromide, cliché, commonplace, flatness, sterility). (various references) | |
Russian | банальность (banality, commonplace, triviality), пошлость (banality), плоскость (flatness, plane, sheet). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | plitkoumnost, plitkost. (various references) | |
Spanish | tópico (cliché, platitudinous), lugar común (cliché, tag). (various references) | |
Swedish | banalitet (banality, commonness, triviality). (various references) | |
Turkish | beylik lâf (bromide, commonplace), bayağılık (abjection, abjectness, banality, coarseness, commonness, inferiority, shoddy, tawdriness, vulgarism, vulgarity), basmakalıp söz (cliché, conventionality, rubber stamp, stereotype, stock phrase). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | тривіальність (banality, triviality), безбарвність (achromatism, baldness, neutral, washiness), банальність (banality, commonness, commonplace, flatness, humdrum, vapidity). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | tính vô vị (insipidity, insipidness, tastelessness), tính tầm thường (commonplaceness, humbleness, inconsequentiality, littleness, matter-of-factness, nothingness, paltriness, prosiness, soullessness, trivialism), tính nh m lời nói vô vị, lời nói tầm thường (commonplace), lời nói nh m. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Old French | 900-1400 | plat. (various references) |
| French | 1500-Modern | platitude. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "platitude": platitudes. (additional references) | |
| |
"Platitude" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: phatigue, pladitude, plaitude, platatude, plateaued, platituder, platituds, platitutde, plattitude. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "platitude" (pronounced pla"tutuw'd) |
| 7 | -l a" t u t uw' d | latitude. |
| 6 | -a" t u t uw' d | attitude, gratitude. |
| 5 | -t u t uw' d | altitude, aptitude, certitude, exactitude, fortitude, ineptitude, multitude, rectitude. |
| 4 | -u t uw' d | amplitude, longitude, magnitude, servitude, solicitude, solitude, turpitude, verisimilitude. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-d-e-i-l-p-t-t-u" | |
-1 letter: altitude, aptitude, latitude, uptilted. | |
-2 letters: plaited, platted, plaudit, puttied, taliped. | |
-3 letters: aliped, aplite, audile, dautie, detail, dilate, dilute, elapid, patted, pattie, pitted, plated, pleiad, plutei, putted, tailed, tauted, tilted, titled, tuladi, update, uptilt. | |
-4 letters: adept, adieu, adult, ailed, atilt, audit, dealt, delta, dulia, duple, ideal, lated, latte, leapt, lepta, letup, lutea, luted, padle, paled. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-d-e-i-l-p-t-t-u" | |
+1 letter: platitudes, stipulated. | |
+2 letters: capitulated. | |
+4 letters: platitudinize, recapitulated, sextuplicated. | |
+5 letters: autotetraploid, outmanipulated, photoduplicate, platitudinized, platitudinizes, quintuplicated. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Quotations: Familiar | 5. Quotations: Non-fiction 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Translations: Ancient 11. Derivations 12. Rhymes | 13. Anagrams 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
