COMMONPLACE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Commonplace

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/kˈɑmənplˌeɪs/ Listen

adjective

Commonplace adj. Common; ordinary; trite; as, a commonplace person, or observation.

noun

Commonplace n.

An idea or expression wanting originality or interest; a trite or customary remark; a platitude.

A memorandum; something to be frequently consulted or referred to. "Whatever, in my reading, occurs concerning this our fellow creature, I do never fail to set it down by way of commonplace."

Commonplace book, a book in which records are made of things to be remembered.

verb

Commonplace v. t. To enter in a commonplace book, or to reduce to general heads.

Commonplace v. i. To utter commonplaces; to indulge in platitudes. (Obs.)

See images of 'Commonplace'

Etymology of 'Commonplace'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Commonplace" Quotes from Famous Books

... the myths that have gathered around the name of Basil Valentine, because it has become a commonplace in philology, has probably made him more generally known than any of his actual discoveries. In one of the most popular of the old-fashioned text-books of chemistry in use about half a century ago, in the chapter on antimony, there was a story that students, if I may judge ...

— Old-Time Makers of Medicine • James J. Walsh

... atmosphere, which deepens and heightens all the effects, while the lunar bareness of our perspectives mercilessly reveals the facts. After you leave the last cliff behind on lower Broadway the only incident of the long, straight avenue which distracts you from the varied commonplace of the commercial structures on either hand is the loveliness of Grace Church; but in the Strand and Fleet Street you have a succession of edifices which overwhelm you with the sense of a life in which trade is only one of the incidents. If the day is such as ...

— London Films • W.D. Howells

... had progressed with her day. The third diner was an adored young actor with a low, veiled voice which, combining itself with almond eyes and a sentimental and emotional curve of cheek and chin, made the most commonplace "lines" sound yearningly impassioned. He was not impassioned at all—merely fond of his pleasures and comforts in a way which would end by his becoming stout. At present his figure was perfect—exactly the thing for the uniforms of royal persons of Ruritania ...

— The Head of the House of Coombe • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... perfect. In season and out of season Zizine consulted Francis with a look, and Francis seemed to take his ideas from Zizine's eyes. They frowned and smiled together, and seemingly took counsel of each other before making the simplest commonplace remark. ...

— Two Poets - Lost Illusions Part I • Honore de Balzac

... was not a nice thing to cuddle up and hide; of a misery she must get rid, and if talking about it was any relief, why not talk? She soon found, however, that it was no relief to talk to Arthur or his sister; and from the commonplace governess, she recoiled. The bookbinder was different; he was a man; he was not what people called a gentleman; he was a man like the men in the Bible, who spoke out what they meant! The others were empty; Richard was full of man! As regarded her father and mother, ...

— There & Back • George MacDonald

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