Word to the Wise: Pleonasm

"Pleonasm" (PLEE-uh-naz-um) - from the Greek for "greater" - is the use of more words than necessary to express an idea.

Example (as used by Paula Cocozza in The Independent): "[He] uses many words where few would do, as if pleonasm were a way of wringing every possibility out of the material he has, and stretching sentences a form of spreading the word."

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