{{Short description|Trite, prosaic, or cliché truism}} {{distinguish|Platitude (band)}} {{Wiktionary|platitude}} A '''platitude''' is a statement that is seen as trite, meaningless, or prosaic, aimed at quelling social, emotional, or cognitive unease.<ref name="robinson"/> The statement may be true, but its meaning has been lost due to its excessive use as a thought-terminating cliché.<ref name="cambridge">[https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/platitude "Platitude"], ''Cambridge Dictionary''</ref>
Platitudes have been criticized as giving a false impression of wisdom, making it easy to accept falsehoods: <blockquote> A platitude is even worse than a cliché. It’s a sanctimonious cliché, a statement that is not only old and overused but often moralistic and imperious. ... [P]latitudes have an aphoristic quality, they seem like timeless moral lessons. They therefore shape our view of the world, and can lull us into accepting things that are actually false and foolish.<ref name="robinson">{{Cite news |last=Robinson |first=Nathan J. |date=2017-08-23 |title=The Uses of Platitudes |url=https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2017/08/the-uses-of-platitudes |access-date=2025-11-10 |work=Current Affairs |language=en |issn=2471-2647}}</ref> </blockquote>
Platitudes often take the form of tautologies, e.g., "it is what it is", making them appear vacuously true. But the phrase is used to mean "there is no way of changing it", which is no longer a tautology: "Structuring the sentiment as a tautology allows it to appear inescapable." At the same time, some phrases that have become platitudes may provide useful moral guidance, such as "do unto others as you would have them do unto you". Others, though widely trivialized, may be thought-provoking, such as "Be the change you wish to see in the world".<ref name="robinson"/>
==Etymology== The word is a borrowing from the French compound ''platitude'', from ''plat'' 'flat' + ''-(i)tude'' '-ness', thus 'flatness'. The figurative sense is first attested in French in 1694 in the meaning 'the quality of banality' and in 1740 in the meaning 'a commonplace remark'. It is first attested in English in 1762.<ref>''Oxford English Dictionary'', 3rd edition, [http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/145403 ''s.v.'']</ref>
== Examples == * Thoughts and prayers *It doesn't matter who scores, as long as the team wins.<ref name="cambridge"/> *Sacrifice today for a better tomorrow.<ref name="cambridge"/> *Nobody's perfect.<ref name="literaryterms">[https://literaryterms.net/platitude/ "Platitude"], ''Literary Terms''</ref> *Good things come to those who wait.<ref name="literaryterms"/> *Life is a mystery.<ref name="literaryterms"/> *That's just my personal opinion.<ref name="literaryterms"/> *I wish I knew then what I know now.<ref name="literaryterms"/> *Sometimes bad things lead to good things.<ref name="literaryterms"/> *What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.<ref name="literaryterms"/> *We all die someday.<ref name="literaryterms"/> *Everybody changes.<ref name="literaryterms"/> *It really do be like that sometimes.<ref name="literaryterms"/> *Take the good with the bad.<ref name="literaryterms"/> *Everything isn't always what it seems.<ref name="literaryterms"/> *Everything happens for a reason.<ref name="literaryterms"/> *Whatever will be, will be.<ref name="literaryterms"/>
==In philosophy== In philosophy, platitudes are beliefs or assertions about a topic which are generally accepted as common sense. In some approaches to conceptual analysis, they are taken as a starting point. Roger Scruton observes that platitudes can for some philosophers play a defining role in addressing questions, where "platitudes - innocuous though they may seem to the untheoretical eye - provide the ultimate test of any philosophical theory".<ref>Scruton, R. (2011), [https://academic.oup.com/book/578/chapter/135306675 Beauty: A Very Short Introduction], p. 5, accessed on 16 September 2024</ref>
Conjoining the platitudes on a topic may give a Ramsey sentence. Analyzing platitudes forms part of the Canberra Plan of philosophical methodology.<ref>Daniel Nolan, "Platitudes and metaphysics", in David Braddon-Mitchell & Robert Nola (eds.), ''Conceptual Analysis and Philosophical Naturalism'', MIT Press, 2009 [https://philpapers.org/go.pl?id=NOLPAM&proxyId=none&u=http%3A%2F%2Fdanielnolanphil.googlepages.com%2FNolanPandM.pdf full text]</ref>
==See also== * {{annotated link|Bromide (language)}} * {{annotated link|Buzzword}} * {{annotated link|Cliché}} * {{annotated link|Thought-terminating cliché}} * {{annotated link|Demagogue}} * {{annotated link|Snowclone}} * {{annotated link|Superficiality}} * {{annotated link|Tautology (language)}} * {{annotated link|Tautophrase}} * {{annotated link|Truism}} * {{annotated link|Slogan}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Bibliography==
* Jay J. Smith, ''A Plethora of Platitudes: A collection of cliches and an assortment of adages'', Writers Club Press (self-published), 2000. {{isbn|1462089666}} * James A. Chapman, ''Handbook of Grammar and Composition''. Pensacola, FL: Beka Book Publications, 1985.
Category:Rhetoric