cliché

12 synonyms and 1 antonym for cliché, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.

Noun — A phrase or idea that has been used so often it no longer has any force or freshness.

Synonyms

Everyday swaps

Common words most readers know — safe in any writing.

convention tired

Less common

Still standard English, but they carry more weight.

stereotype stale

Rare, literary or technical

Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.

platitude stock phrase truism banality hackneyed expression trope hackneyed trite

Synonyms by Meaning

1. noun

A phrase or idea that has been used so often it no longer has any force or freshness.

“The speech was a string of clichés about journeys and rollercoasters.”

platitude stock phrase truism banality hackneyed expression

Opposites

original expression

2. noun

A situation, character or feature so predictable that it feels stale.

“The plot leaned on every romantic comedy cliché going.”

stereotype trope convention

3. adjective informal in the unsuffixed form

So overused as to have lost its impact. Often written clichéd.

“The ending was cliché and predictable.”

hackneyed trite stale tired

How to use cliché

The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.

a tired cliché avoid clichés the old cliché that clichéd dialogue become a cliché

The accent is usually kept in careful writing but cliche is widely accepted; the adjective clichéd is safer in formal prose than bare cliché.

Etymology

From French cliché, the past participle of clicher, a printing term for making a stereotype plate; a phrase reused unchanged was likened to a fixed printing block.

Full origin of cliché →

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a cliché and an idiom?

An idiom is a fixed expression whose meaning is not obvious from its words, such as kick the bucket, and it is not automatically a fault. A cliché is any expression, idiomatic or not, that has been worn out by overuse. Some idioms are clichés; many are not.

Is it cliché or clichéd?

Traditionally cliché is the noun and clichéd the adjective, so the line was clichéd. Using cliché as an adjective is now very common in speech but still looks informal in edited writing.

Why is cliché a printing word?

In French printing, a cliché was a metal plate cast to reproduce the same block of type again and again. The image of endless identical copies transferred neatly to language.

People also searched

tired convention stereotype stale trope hackneyed truism platitude trite banality

Nearby words

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