tautology. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

tautology

SYLLABICATION:	tau·tol·o·gy
PRONUNCIATION:	tô-tl-j
NOUN:	Inflected forms: pl. tau·tol·o·gies 1a. Needless repetition of the same sense in different words; redundancy. b. An instance of such repetition. 2. Logic An empty or vacuous statement composed of simpler statements in a fashion that makes it logically true whether the simpler statements are factually true or false; for example, the statement Either it will rain tomorrow or it will not rain tomorrow.
ETYMOLOGY:	Late Latin tautologia, from Greek tautologi, from tautologos, redundant : tauto-, tauto- + logos, saying; see –logy.
OTHER FORMS:	tauto·logi·cal (tôtl-j-kl) , tauto·logic (-k) —ADJECTIVE tauto·logi·cal·ly —ADVERB


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.