Meaning of commonplace in English:
commonplace
See synonyms for commonplaceTranslate commonplace into Spanish
adjective
1Not unusual; ordinary.
‘unemployment was commonplace in his trade’- ‘He insists that what he is doing is to configure the commonplace issues of ordinary life.’
- ‘None of the others had noticed the little scene; it was an event too commonplace to mark.’
- ‘This is Realism at its most powerful, turning a commonplace event into an historical one.’
- ‘The survey showed committees were far more commonplace where trade unions had representation.’
- ‘With all these commonplace conventions, what is it that makes the file outstanding?’
- ‘Human rights violations are not some sort of other worldly event, they are sometimes very commonplace.’
- ‘The most commonplace events are also opportunities, life-determining choices made or not made.’
- ‘The talent of the comic is to make commonplace events remarkable.’
- ‘It is also, we must never forget, made from joy and the celebration of simple and ordinary and commonplace things and events.’
- ‘In Rome, assassination would have been a relatively commonplace event; especially for people of the higher class.’
- ‘He soon discovered that death was a commonplace event.’
- ‘The loss of a job - a sadly commonplace event in today's turbulent economic climate - is not just a blow to the wallet, but a severe hit to the psyche.’
- ‘He advocated that literature should record the writer's affectionate response to ordinary phenomena and commonplace happenings.’
- ‘An everyday tale of a commonplace ballet company!’
- ‘A commonplace event, one would assume on a hot day.’
- ‘This is perfectly possible for even an ordinary club level sailor - it is quite commonplace not to have to qualify for an event.’
- ‘It would only be a matter of time before electronic devices became commonplace objects in the classroom.’
- ‘Using a computer is becoming more commonplace and sometimes is an absolute necessity for your child to complete his homework assignments.’
- ‘A vandalised car, all but ignored by passers-by, reflects how commonplace minor crime has become in small towns.’
- ‘Like it or not, sponsorship deals between companies and the athletic teams are very commonplace not only in the world of pro sports but at SFU as well.’
ordinary, run-of-the-mill, middle-of-the-road, mainstream, unremarkable, unexceptional, undistinguished, uninspired, unexciting, unmemorable, forgettable, indifferent, average, so-so, mediocre, pedestrian, prosaic, lacklustre, dull, bland, uninteresting, mundane, everyday, quotidian, humdrum, hackneyed, trite, banal, clichéd, predictable, overused, overdone, overworked, stale, worn out, time-worn, tired, unoriginal, derivativecommon, normal, usual, ordinary, familiar, routine, standard, everyday, day-to-day, daily, regular, frequent, habitual, conventional, typical, unexceptional, unremarkableView synonyms- 1.1Not interesting or original; trite.‘the usual commonplace remarks’
- ‘These types of self-congratulatory remarks are commonplace and formulaic.’
- ‘After a few more exceedingly commonplace remarks of the same character, she gave me to write down a list of drugs that were to be taken.’
- ‘Peace would be all too commonplace and boring, not to mention that it couldn't possibly involve the kind of firepower you're accustomed to.’
- ‘Yet measles, malnutrition and diarrhoea remain tediously commonplace causes of death in all too many parts of it in the first years of the twenty-first century.’
- ‘If you think buffets are commonplace and boring, just try the beverage buffet.’
- ‘This approach in Chinese cinema, however, was entirely absent from the films screened in Sydney, which were bland and artistically commonplace works.’
- ‘Now 60 years on, the process has been repeated, but reversed, as the commonplace colour of modern films returns to nostalgic black and white.’
- ‘It had been fed to us for a long time, and therefore, we looked at it as a tedious and commonplace state of things.’
- ‘He is never dull and even his more commonplace chapters are enlivened with fascinating detail or asides.’
- ‘So much more interesting than the flat, filmed performances with irritating cutting that are now commonplace.’
- ‘The commonplace pessimistic argument points out that since low interest rates have been good for the economy, higher interest rates will be bad.’
- ‘Our visitor bore every mark of being an average commonplace British tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow.’
- ‘Partly to reinforce the commonplace argument that there will always be a special cultural relationship between Scotland and England and that independence would not disrupt that.’
- ‘The seemingly forward question sounded very trite and commonplace in the blunt honest tone she used.’
- ‘In a word, Liz will be quite a commonplace, average girl of the lower working-class…’
unexciting, boring, dull, tiresome, wearisome, tedious, dreary, tiring, flat, lifeless, monotonous, humdrum, uneventful, slow, unvaried, repetitious, commonplace, colourless, bland, insipid, banal, dry, pedestrian, prosaic, hackneyed, trite, clichéd, staleView synonyms
noun
1A usual or ordinary thing.
‘bombing has become almost a commonplace of public life there’- ‘Then he makes a characteristic move: you see how he is able to invest the ordinary, the commonplace, with mystery.’
- ‘His poetry and fiction celebrates the ordinary and commonplace, striving for a transformation that might well be magical.’
- ‘Dixon is the kind of ordinary hero who had become a commonplace of Ealing films during the war period.’
- ‘It has become a commonplace for playwrights to require actors to play several different parts, and at times a mere two actors is all that is needed to portray several dozen characters.’
- ‘It had been a historical commonplace to view the long interval between Archimedes and Galileo as a period of unrelieved ignorance and superstition.’
- ‘The argument is in fact a commonplace of political science.’
- ‘It used to be a commonplace that activities aimed at uncovering truth and knowledge set about the relatively simple tasks of making observations and recording results.’
- ‘Answer: This is a commonplace at a badly run lab.’
- ‘The novelty of the new popular poetry is not its mass appeal; that was a commonplace in American culture in the late nineteenth century.’
- ‘Whatever you are looking for we have it in the collection, from the endangered to the commonplace.’
- ‘It's also one that mentions God as a source of inspiration: something that is rarely mentioned so plainly elsewhere but is a commonplace in country songs.’
- ‘Matches between female boxers have become a commonplace - if not widely accepted - part of the sport.’
- ‘And before the vote it had been a commonplace to say that it was the most important election of our lifetimes.’
- ‘The point is only driven home by seeing something that has become a commonplace represented as something surprising.’
- ‘I thought they approved of that sort of thing - indeed, they want such scenes to be a commonplace in Her Majesty's Forces.’
- ‘Tales of the commonplace, stories about the small things that make up our daily existence, can be fascinating.’
- ‘This is a commonplace of life in the poorest neighbourhood in Vancouver.’
- ‘It is a commonplace in Germany that elections are decided by the middle.’
- ‘It is a commonplace in the West that governments should be as democratic as possible.’
- ‘The latter, a commonplace in the West, is a new concept for the Japanese.’
everyday event, everyday thingView synonyms- 1.1A trite saying or topic; a platitude.‘it is a commonplace to talk of the young being alienated’
- ‘So instead politicians almost uniformly retreat to the safety of the platitude and commonplace.’
- ‘And what is perhaps the most troubling feature of her writing is her tendency to use commonplaces and cliches and undefined terms as if their meaning were indisputable and clear.’
- ‘My only knowledge of francophone Caribbean literature consisted of a few commonplaces and catchphrases.’
- ‘Alas, its open expression is now a commonplace.’
- ‘It's always good to have critical commonplaces questioned, even if you end up reaffirming them.’
- ‘It has become a commonplace to say of biographies of Plath that they take sides.’
- ‘Sontag acknowledges that she is stating a commonplace when she notes the ‘erotic lure [of] things that are vile and repulsive’.’
- ‘The final pages are full of journalistic commonplaces - ‘Western-style consumerism is unsustainable on a global scale’.’
platitude, cliché, truism, banal saying, hackneyed saying, overworked saying, trite saying, stock phrase, old chestnut, banality, bromideView synonyms
2A notable passage in a work copied into a commonplace book.
Origin
Mid 16th century (originally common place): translation of Latin locus communis, rendering Greek koinos topos ‘general theme’.
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