pleonasm
/ˈpliː.əˌnæz.əm/noun
pleonasm is spelled P-L-E-O-N-A-S-M: 8 letters and 4 syllables. It appears about once in every 51 million words in written English, the 222,788th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, pleonasm means “Redundancy in wording” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of pleonasm is pleonasms.
How many letters and syllables are in pleonasm?
| Letters | 8: P-L-E-O-N-A-S-M |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 51 million words; the 222,788th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is pleonasm?
Pleonasm appears about once in every 51 million words in written English, the 222,788th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce pleonasm?
- /ˈpliː.əˌnæz.əm/
Pleonasm has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-pleonasm.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with pleonasm?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as pleonasm.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: neoplasm.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of pleonasm
- pleonasms plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does pleonasm mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Redundancy in wording.
- 2
A phrase involving pleonasm; a phrase containing one or more words which are redundant because their meaning is expressed elsewhere in the phrase.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Pleonasm in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense redundancy in wording:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | pléonasme |
| German | Pleonasmus |
| Portuguese | pleonasmo |
| Spanish | pleonasmo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does pleonasm come from?
Learned borrowing from Late Latin pleonasmus, from Ancient Greek πλεονασμός (pleonasmós), from πλεονάζω (pleonázō, “to be superfluous”), from πλείων (pleíōn, “more”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).