{{Short description|Overused, unoriginal phrase or opinion}} {{other uses}}
A '''cliché''' ({{IPAc-en|UK|ˈ|k|l|iː|ʃ|eɪ}} or {{IPAc-en|US|k|l|iː|ˈ|ʃ|eɪ}}; {{IPA|fr|kliʃe|lang}}) is a saying, idea, or element of an artistic work that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning, novelty, or figurative or artistic power, even to the point of now being bland or uninteresting.<ref>Gary Blake and Robert W. Bly, ''The Elements of Technical Writing'', pg. 85. New York: Macmillan Publishers, 1993. {{ISBN|0020130856}}</ref> In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning, referring to an expression imposed by conventionalized linguistic usage.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-01-11|title=Cliché - Examples and Definition of Cliché as a writing device|url=https://literarydevices.net/cliche/|access-date=2021-09-30|website=Literary Devices}}</ref>
The term, which is typically pejorative,<ref>{{Cite web|first=Kaitlyn|last=Tiffany|date=February 21, 2023|title=Welcome to the Golden Age of Clichés|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/02/ai-chatbots-cliche-writing/673143/|access-date=July 25, 2025|work=The Atlantic|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230225210317/https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/02/ai-chatbots-cliche-writing/673143/|archive-date=February 25, 2023}}</ref> is often used in modern culture for an action or idea that is expected or predictable, based on a prior event. Clichés may or may not be true.<ref>Short Story Library [http://shortstory.us.com/2009/05/thick-skin-and-writing-cliche-but-true/ Thick skin and writing, cliché, but true] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100226023613/http://shortstory.us.com/2009/05/thick-skin-and-writing-cliche-but-true/ |date=2010-02-26 }} - Published By Casey Quinn • May 10th, 2009 • Category: Casey's Corner</ref> Some are stereotypes, but some are simply truisms and facts.<ref>[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Cliche The Free Dictionary - Cliche]</ref> Clichés often are employed for comedic effect, typically in fiction.
Most phrases now considered clichéd originally were regarded as striking but have lost their force through overuse.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Mason |first1=David |author-link1=David Mason (writer) |last2=Nims |first2=John Frederick |author-link2=John Frederick Nims |year=1999 |title=Western Wind: An Introduction to Poetry |publisher=McGraw-Hill |pages=126–127 | isbn=0-07-303180-1}}</ref> The French poet Gérard de Nerval once said, "The first who compared a woman to a rose was a poet, the second an imbecile."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.linternaute.fr/citation/3622/le-premier-qui-compara-la-femme-a-une-rose-etait--gerard-de-nerval/ |title=Quotations of Gérard de Nerval |access-date=28 November 2025 |quote=Le premier qui compara la femme à une rose était un poète, le second un imbécile.}}</ref>
A cliché is often a vivid depiction of an abstraction that relies upon analogy or exaggeration for effect, often drawn from everyday experience.<ref>{{cite book|last=Loewen|first=Nancy|title=Talking Turkey and Other Clichés We Say|year=2011|publisher=Capstone|isbn=978-1404862722|page=11}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Definition of Cliché|url=http://literarydevices.net/cliche/|access-date=3 January 2014}}</ref> Used sparingly, it may succeed, but the use of a cliché in writing, speech, or argument is generally considered a mark of inexperience or a lack of originality. However, some scholars of film have noted that some clichés - such as stock characters - can be employed creatively, either by generating expectations within the narrative or by producing pleasure through the simple thrill of recognition.<ref>{{Citation | title= Complicit masculinity and the serialization of violence: Notes from Australian cinema |first=Timothy|last=Laurie| journal= Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies | year= 2021 |volume=36|issue=1|pages=64-83|url=https://www.academia.edu/67159237|DOI=10.1080/10304312.2021.2008318}}</ref>
== Etymology == The word ''cliché'' is borrowed from French, where it is a past passive participle of ''clicher'', 'to click', used as a noun; ''cliché'' is attested from 1825 and originated in the printing trades.<ref name="etymonline.com">{{cite web |title=cliche |url=https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=cliche |website=www.etymonline.com |publisher=Online Etymology Dictionary |access-date=15 October 2024}}</ref> The term ''cliché'' was adopted as printers' jargon to refer to a stereotype, electrotype, cast plate or block print that could reproduce type or images repeatedly.<ref>{{cite book|last=Westwood|first=Alison|title=The Little Book of Clichés|publisher=Canary Press eBooks|isbn=1907795138}}</ref><ref name="etymonline.com"/> It has been suggested that the word originated from the clicking sound in "dabbed" printing (a particular form of stereotyping in which the block was impressed into a bath of molten type-metal to form a matrix). Through this onomatopoeia, ''cliché'' came to mean a ready-made, oft-repeated phrase.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Knight|first=Edward Henry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gx7OAAAAMAAJ&q=Clich%C3%A9+clicking+sound+in+%22dabbed%22+printing&pg=PA566|title=Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary: A Description of Tools, Instruments, Machines, Processes, and Engineering; History of Inventions; General Technological Vocabulary; and Digest of Mechanical Appliances in Science and the Arts|date=1881|publisher=Houghton, Mifflin|language=en}}</ref>
=== Usage === thumb|right|Using a feature such as an overhanging branch to frame a nature scene<ref>{{cite book | last = Freeman | first = Michael | year = 2004 | title = Nature and Landscape Photography | publisher = Lark Books | page = 36 | isbn = 1-57990-545-5 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=0bGIPv-OR6UC&pg=PA36 | access-date = 2009-07-02}}</ref> may be described as a visual cliché. Various dictionaries recognize a derived adjective ''clichéd'', with the same meaning.<ref name=AHD>{{cite book | chapter = cliche | date = n.d. | title = The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition | url = http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/cliche | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20050109211752/http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/cliche | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2005-01-09 | access-date = 2010-10-21 }}</ref><ref name=MW>{{cite book | chapter = cliché | title = Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary | year = 2010 | url = http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cliche | access-date = 2010-02-21}}</ref><ref name=RHUD>{{cite book | title = Dictionary.com Unabridged | chapter = cliché | date = n.d. | url = http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cliche | access-date = 2010-02-21}}</ref><ref name=NSOED/> ''Cliché'' is sometimes used as an adjective,<ref name=MW/><ref name=RHUD/> although some dictionaries do not recognize it as such,<ref name=AHD/><ref name=NSOED>{{cite book | editor-last = Brown | editor-first = Lesley | title = New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary | year = 1993 | chapter = cliché | publisher = Clarendon Press | isbn = 0-19-861271-0 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/newshorteroxford00lesl }}</ref> listing the word only as a noun and ''clichéd'' as the adjective.
==Thought-terminating cliché== {{main|Thought-terminating cliché}} Thought-terminating clichés, also known as thought-stoppers,<ref name=Chiras/> or semantic stopsigns,<ref name="Yudkowsky">{{cite web|url=https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FWMfQKG3RpZx6irjm/semantic-stopsigns|title=Semantic Stopsigns|last=Yudkowsky|first=Eliezer|author-link=Eliezer Yudkowsky|website=Less Wrong|date=24 Aug 2007|access-date=26 Aug 2018}}</ref> are words or phrases that discourage critical thought and meaningful discussion about a given topic.<ref name="Taylor2006">{{cite book|author=Kathleen Taylor|title=Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D3tYeMLc4hQC&pg=PA21|date=27 July 2006|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-920478-6|page=21}}</ref> They are typically short, generic truisms that offer seemingly simple answers to complex questions or that distract attention away from other lines of thought.<ref name="Taylor2006"/> They are often sayings that have been embedded in a culture's folk wisdom and are tempting to say because they ''sound'' true or good or like the right thing to say.<ref name=Chiras/> Some examples are: "Stop thinking so much",<ref>{{citation|title=Bothered and Bewildered: Enacting Hope in Troubled Times|first=Ann|last=Morisy|publisher=A&C Black|year=2009|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cFWgUzCWtHYC&q=%22thought%20terminating%22%20alcoholics&pg=PA29|page=29|isbn=9781847064806|access-date=October 25, 2016}}</ref> "here we go again",<ref>{{citation|title=Decision Downloading|last1=Clampitt|first1=Phillip G.|last2=Williams|first2=M. Lee|magazine=MIT Sloan Management Review|date=Winter 2007|volume=48|issue=2|url=http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/decision-downloading/|access-date=October 25, 2016}}</ref> and "so what, what effect do my [individual] actions have?"<ref name=Chiras>{{citation|title=Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in the Biology & Environmental Science Classrooms|first=Daniel D.|last=Chiras|journal=The American Biology Teacher|volume=54|issue=8|year=1992|pages=464–468|doi=10.2307/4449551|jstor=4449551}}</ref>
The term was popularized by psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton in his 1961 book, ''Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of "Brainwashing" in China''.<ref name="Taylor2006"/> Lifton wrote, "The language of the totalist environment is characterized by the thought-terminating cliché. The most far-reaching and complex of human problems are compressed into brief, highly reductive, definitive-sounding phrases, easily memorized and easily expressed. These become the start and finish of any ideological analysis".<ref name="cliche">{{cite book |last=Lifton |first=Robert J. |title=Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of Brainwashing in China |page=429 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FU_ifHrIIg0C&q=%22Thought-terminating+clich%C3%A9%22+totalism&pg=PA429 |year=1989 |publisher=UNC Press|isbn=978-0-8078-4253-9}}</ref> Sometimes they are used in a deliberate attempt to shut down debate, manipulate others to think a certain way, or dismiss dissent. However, some people repeat them, even to themselves, out of habit or conditioning, or as a defense mechanism to reaffirm a confirmation bias.<ref name=Chiras/><ref name=Peterson>{{citation|title=Scientology's enturbulating lingo|first=Britt|last=Peterson|date=March 19, 2015|newspaper=Boston Globe|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2015/03/19/scientology-enturbulating-lingo/TvBESMQkV4RcxGnyrNSH1K/story.html|access-date=October 25, 2016}}</ref>
==See also== {{div col|colwidth=30em}} * Archetype * Aphorism * Bromide (language) * Catchphrase * Figure of speech * Idiom * I'm entitled to my opinion * Irreversible binomial * Kitsch * List of English idioms on Wiktionary * Meme * Platitude * Pun * Shitposting * Slogan * Snowclone * Speech * Stock character * Thoughts and prayers * :Category:Tropes {{div col end}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== {{commons category|lcfirst=yes}} {{Wikiquote}} {{Wiktionary}} * Nana Ariel & Dana Riesenfeld (2026). ''[https://books.google.co.il/books/about/Clich%C3%A9s_We_Live_By.html?id=oBzF0QEACAAJ&redir_esc=y Clichés We Live By, from Modernity to AI]. Oxford University Press.'' * {{cite book|title=On Clichés: The Supersedure of Meaning by Function in Modernity|publisher=Routledge|year=1979|isbn=9780710001863|author=Anton C. Zijderveld|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/onclichessuperse0000zijd}} * {{cite book|title=The Dialect of the Tribe|author=Margery Sabin|chapter=The Life of English Idiom, the Laws of French Cliché|pages=10–25|publisher=Oxford University Press US|year=1987|isbn=9780195041538}} * {{cite journal|journal=Poetics Today|volume=21|issue=3|date=Summer 2000|author=Veronique Traverso and Denise Pessah|title=Stereotypes et cliches: Langue, discours, societe|pages=463–465|publisher=Duke University Press|doi=10.1215/03335372-21-2-463|s2cid=170839666}} * {{cite journal|title="Everybody Has Their Own Ideas": Responding to Cliche in Student Writing|jstor=358494|author=Skorczewski, Dawn|journal=College Composition and Communication|volume=52|issue=2|pages=220–239|date=December 2000|doi=10.2307/358494}} * {{cite journal |last1=Kochin |first1=Michael |date=2023 |title='Life as literature': Wright Morris's Love Among the Cannibals |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/0950236X.2022.2041713|journal=Textual Practice|volume= 37|issue= 3|pages=357–372 |doi=10.1080/0950236X.2022.2041713 |url-access=subscription }} * {{cite journal|title=The Cliché in the Reading Process. Trans. Terese Lyons|author=Ruth Amossy|journal=SubStance|volume=11|issue=2.35|year=1982|pages=34–45|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|doi=10.2307/3684023|jstor=3684023|others = Trans. Terese Lyons.|last2=Lyons}} *{{cite book | last1 = Sullivan | first1 = Frank | author-link1 = Frank Sullivan (writer) | editor-last = Crane | editor-first = Milton | title = The Roosevelt Era | url = https://archive.org/details/rooseveltera0000cran | url-access = registration | orig-year = 1938 | year = 1947 | publisher = Boni and Gaer | location = New York | oclc = 275967 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/rooseveltera0000cran/page/237 237–242] | chapter = The Cliche Expert Testifies as a Roosevelt Hater | quote = Mr. Arbuthnot: No sir! Nobody is going to tell me how to run my business. Q: Mr. Arbuthnot, you sound like a Roosevelt hater. A: I certainly am. Q: In that case, perhaps you could give us an idea of some of the cliches your set is in the habit of using in speaking of Mr. Roosevelt ... | ref = From A Pearl in Every Oyster, by Frank Sullivan. Originally published in The New Yorker, 1938 }}
{{Narrative modes}} {{Fallacies}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cliche}} Category:1820s neologisms Category:Descriptive technique Category:Paremiology Category:Jargon