tautology

English

Etymology

From Late Latin tautologia, from Ancient Greek ταὐτολογία (tautología) from ταὐτός (tautós, “the same”) + λόγος (lógos, “explanation”), analyzed as tauto- +‎ -logy.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /tɔˈtɒl.ə.d͡ʒi/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /tɔˈtɑl.ə.d͡ʒi/
• Rhymes: -ɒlədʒi

Noun

tautology (countable and uncountable, plural tautologies)

1. (uncountable) Redundant use of words, a pleonasm, an unnecessary and tedious repetition.

   It is tautology to say, "Forward Planning".

2. (countable) An expression that features tautology.

   The expression "raze to the ground" is a tautology, since the word "raze" includes the notion "to the ground".

   • 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy:

     Pure mathematics consists of tautologies, analogous to ‘men are men’, but usually more complicated.

3. (countable, logic, propositional logic) A statement that is true for all truth values of its propositional variables.
4. (countable, logic, first-order logic) A statement that is true for all truth values of its Boolean atoms.

Antonyms

• (linguistics: expression): contradiction in terms
• (in logic): contradiction
• (literary): oxymoron

Coordinate terms

• (in logic): contingency, contradiction

Derived terms

terms derived from tautology (noun)

• tautological
• tautologically
• tautologise
• tautologist
• tautologous
• tautologously

Translations

uncountable: redundant use of words

• Bulgarian: повторение (bg) (povtorenie)
• Catalan: tautologia f
• French: tautologie (fr) f
• Galician: tautoloxía f
• German: Pleonasmus (de) m
• Greek: ταυτολογία (el) f (taftología)
• Japanese: 同語反復 (ja) (どうごはんぷく, dōgo hanpuku), トートロジー (ja) (tōtorojī)
• Polish: pleonazm (pl) m, tautologia (pl) f, masło maślane (pl) n (colloquial)
• Portuguese: tautologia (pt) f
• Romanian: tautologie (ro) f, pleonasm (ro) n
• Russian: тавтоло́гия (ru) f (tavtológija)
• Scottish Gaelic: ath-bhriathrachas m
• Serbo-Croatian: zalihost (sh) f, redundancija (sh) f
• Spanish: tautología (es) f, pleonasmo (es) m, redundancia (es) f
• Swedish: tautologi (sv) c
• Tagalog: pagpapaliguy-ligoy
• Ukrainian: тавтоло́гія f (tavtolóhija)

expression that features tautology

• Chinese: 套套邏輯／套套逻辑 (zh), 套套逻辑 (zh) (tàotàoluóji); 廢話／废话 (zh) (fèihuà), 废话 (zh) (fèihuà)
• Dutch: tautologie (nl) f
• Finnish: tautologia (fi), toisto (fi)
• French: tautologie (fr) f, lapalissade (fr) f, pléonasme (fr) m, truisme (fr) m
• German: Tautologie (de) f
• Greek: ταυτολογία (el) f (taftología)
• Hungarian: tautológia (hu)
• Italian: tautologia (it) f
• Japanese: 同語反復 (ja) (どうごはんぷく, dōgo hanpuku), トートロジー (ja) (tōtorojī)
• Macedonian: тавтологија f (tavtologija)
• Portuguese: tautologia (pt) f
• Romanian: tautologie (ro) f, pleonasm (ro) n
• Serbo-Croatian: tautologija (sh) f
• Spanish: redundancia (es) f, pleonasmo (es) m, tautología (es) f (rhetoric)
• Swedish: tautologi (sv) c
• Ukrainian: тавтоло́гія f (tavtolóhija)

in logic

• Catalan: tautologia f
• Czech: tautologie (cs) f
• Dutch: tautologie (nl) f
• Finnish: tautologia (fi)
• French: tautologie (fr) f
• German: Tautologie (de) f
• Greek: ταυτολογία (el) f (taftología)
• Hungarian: tautológia (hu)
• Icelandic: sísanna f
• Italian: tautologia (it) f
• Japanese: 恒真式 (こうしんしき, kōshin shiki), トートロジー (ja) (tōtorojī)
• Macedonian: тавтологија f (tavtologija)
• Polish: tautologia (pl) f
• Portuguese: tautologia (pt) f
• Serbo-Croatian: tautologija (sh) f
• Spanish: tautología (es) f
• Swedish: tautologi (sv) c
• Ukrainian: тавтоло́гія f (tavtolóhija)

See also

• pleonasm
• redundancy
• Tautology on Wikipedia.Wikipedia