— pleonastic , adj. — pleonastically , adv.
/plee"euh naz'euhm/ , n.
1. the use of more words than are necessary to express an idea; redundancy.
2. an instance of this, as free gift or true fact.
3. a redundant word or expression.
[ 1580-90; pleonasmus pleonasmós redundancy, surplus, deriv. of pleonázein to be or have more than enough, itself deriv. of pleíon more (see PLEO-) ]