trite
adjective

- expressed too often to be interesting or seem sincere

- boring from much use, not fresh or original

Cambridge Dictionary / Merriam-Webster

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ORIGIN & USAGE

From the 1540s, meaning “used until so common as to have lost its novelty and interest”, from Latin tritus ”worn, oft-trodden”.

Often used in reference to a word or phrase that is commonplace, or no longer interesting or effective.

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DON’T SAY THIS?

In this day and age, university English courses warn students about using “trite expressions” or so-called “hackneyed phrases”.

On the other hand, when all is said and done, "trite" expressions can allow time to think what to say next.

Here’s a small sampling of common phrases considered by some to be trite:

- In this day and age

- Back in the day

- It goes without saying

- Needless to say

- As luck would have it

- Few and far between

- Blind as a bat

- Busy as a bee

- Last but not least

- When all is said and done

- Better late than never

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SYNONYMS
repeated often to the point of being stale or commonplace:

a dime a dozen, anodyne, banal, better than nothing, big yawn, bland, bog-standard, boiler plate, cheap and cheerful, cobwebby, common or garden, commonplace, corny, dreary, dull as dishwater, dullsville, garden-variety, hackneyed, ho-hum, humdrum, insipid, lacklustre, middle-of-the-road, middling, mildewed, Milquetoast, monochromatic, moth-eaten, mundane, neither one thing nor the other, no big deal, no great shakes, nondescript, nothing to get excited about, nothing to write home about, old-chestnut, old-hat, out of the ark, passé, past its sell-by date, plain vanilla, played out, prosaic, run-of-the-mill, shopworn, so-so, stale, standard-issue, ten a penny, time-worn, TRITE, turgid, vanilla, vapid, warmed-over, warmed-up, well-worn, whitebread, without punch, world-worn, worn-out, yawnsome

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“It goes without saying that we’re all guilty of using TRITE expressions.”

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Thanks to Markus for suggesting today’s word.

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HERZLICHEN DANK to all readers helping me keep OWAD alive with single or monthly donations at:

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and,

Paul Smith, IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40