n. 1. a. The use of more words than are required to express an idea; redundancy. b. An instance of pleonasm. 2. A superfluous word or phrase. [Late Latin pleonasmus, from Greek pleonasmos, from pleonazein, to be excessive, from pleōn, more; see pelə-1 in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] ple′o·nastic (-năstĭk) adj. ple′o·nasti·cal·ly adv. |
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