Oxymorons
- Act naturally
- Found missing
- Resident alien
- Advanced BASIC
- Genuine imitation
- Airline Food
- Good grief
- Same difference
- Almost exactly
- Government organization
- Sanitary landfill
- Alone together
- Legally drunk
- Silent scream
- American history
- Living dead
- Small crowd
- Business ethics
- Soft rock
- Butt Head
- Military Intelligence
- Software documentation
- New York culture
- New classic
- Sweet sorrow
- Childproof
- "Now, then …"
- Synthetic natural gas
- Christian Scientists
- Passive aggression
- Taped live
- Clearly misunderstood
- Peace force
- Extinct Life
- Temporary tax increase
- Computer jock
- Plastic glasses
- Terribly pleased
- Computer security
- Political science
- Tight slacks
- Definite maybe
- Pretty ugly
- Twelve-ounce pound cake
- Diet ice cream
- Rap music
- Working vacation
- Exact estimate
- Religious tolerance
- Microsoft Works
- Safe sex
- British fashion
- California culture
- Jumbo Shrimp
- Civil War
- Democratic Leadership
- Sense of Congress
Pleonasms
These are terms or phrases which are inherently redundant ( such as "both redundant and needlessly repetitive" ):
- It's deja vu all over again. -attributed to Yogi Berra
- "Smoking can kill you, and if you've been killed, you've lost a very important part of your life." -attributed to Brooke Shields
- Lead-lined coffins called a health risk.
- Census says rich have most of the money. (news item)
- Clichés are a dime a dozen–avoid them like the plague.
- Cure suggestibility with hypnosis.
- I've told you a million times, "Don't exaggerate!"
- Is that a mirage or am I seeing things?
- It's bad luck to be superstitious.
- I used to be an agnostic, but now I'm not so sure.
- Sometimes you can observe a lot just by watching. -Yogi Berra
- Half the lies our opponents tell about us are not true.
- Football is an incredible game. Sometimes it's so incredible, it's unbelievable. -Tom Landry
- When large numbers of men are unable to find work, unemployment results. -Calvin Coolidge
- Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined. -Samuel Goldwyn
- In the city today, the temperature rose to 105 degrees. This sudden rise of temperature was responsible for the intolerable heat.
- Trapped, like a trap in a trap. -Dorothy Parker
- I used to be indecisive, now I'm not sure.
- He lived his life to the end.
- Some people are superficial but that's just on the surface.
- The world is apathetic but I don't care.
- Always avoid alliteration.
- Treachery will often bring loyalty into question.
- Perspective is in the eye of the beholder.
- If we do not succeed, we run the risk of failure. -Vice-President Dan Quayle
- absolutely essential
- absolutely necessary
- academic scholar
- advance forward
- advance scouting
- advance warning
- affirmative yes
- affluent rich
- American chop suey
- A.M. in the morning
- an anachronism in his own time
- and etc.
- annual yearbook
- anonymous stranger
- armed assault and holdup
- ascend up
- attach together
- autobiography of my life
- automatic ATM machine
- bad evil
- basic fundamentals
- beautiful vista to look out upon
- boat marina
- both football teams were deadlocked at halftime
- breaking and entering
- buried and suffocated to death
- cash money
- cease and desist
- circulated around
- classic tradition
- classify into groups
- climb up
- close scrutiny
- co-equal partners
- cold frost
- cold ice
- collaborate together
- combined together
- completely filled
- completely unanimous
- component parts
- connect up together
- conniption fit
- consecutive extra points in a row
- continuing on
- criminal felony
- criminal misdemeanor
- current incumbent
- dark night
- dead corpse
- definite decision
- descend down
- different variation
- doctorate degree
- handwritten manuscript
- each and every
- each per capita
- eliminate altogether
- empty hole
- empty space
- end result
- entirely eliminating
- essential necessity
- exact replica
- exact same
- exactly the same
- existing condition
- experiment someone was just trying out
- extra added features
- extreme hazard
- favorable approval
- federal deficit
- fellow colleague
- final end
- final showdown
- first conceived
- following below
- forced compulsion
- foreign imports
- former graduate (of an educational institution)
- former veteran
- frank candor
- free gift
- free gratis
- full satisfaction
- funny comedian
- frozen ice
- general consensus of opinion
- good benefit
- good luck
- good success
- graduate student
- grand total
- grateful thanks
- growing greater
- half a dozen of one and six of another
- hard rock (as in Hard Rock Cafe?)
- have and hold
- hear with one's own ears
- HIV virus
- hot fire
- hot water heater
- imminent at any moment
- individual person
- indulgent patience
- inquisitive busybody
- intentional planning
- invited guests
- "…it was never our intent to intentionally exclude…" (heard on the radio)
- irregardless
- join together
- joint collaboration
- joint cooperation
- killed dead
- knowledgeable experts
- last will and testament
- LCD display
- literate-English teachers
- literate readers
- little animalcules
- little baby
- live witness
- living legend in his own time
- long-chronic illness
- lying perjurer
- major breakthrough
- manually by hand
- many frequent
- marital spouse
- may possibly
- meandering back and forth and all around
- mental thought
- merge together
- mesa table
- missing gaps
- mutual cooperation
- microdot
- modern colleges of today
- more easier
- more than unique–it's practically one of a kind
- mutual confidence
- necessary essentials
- negative misfortune
- negative no
- never, ever
- new discovery
- new innovations
- new recruit
- new renovations
- nocturnal-night vampires
- nomenclature terms
- nonreading illiterates
- normal, everyday
- nostalgia for the past
- not sufficient enough
- null and void
- obsolete thing of the past
- old adage
- old customs
- old senior citizens
- only unique (person, place, or thing)
- oral conversation
- original founder
- original source
- overdone this a little too much
- overused cliché
- pair of twins
- past experience
- past history
- past tradition
- perfectly legitimate
- personal friend
- personal friendship
- personal individual
- PIN number (Private Identification Number number)
- pizza pie
- plane flying aloft in the air above
- play actor
- please RSVP
- world-wide-pandemic disease ( heard on CNN from "health expert" )
- P.M. in the evening
- positive praise
- positive yes
- postponed until later
- potentially capable
- pre planning
- present incumbent
- previously listed above
- pruned out
- quite unique
- rags and tatters
- real actual
- recently new
- receded back
- re-continuation
- redundancies, tautologies, and pleonasms
- redundant redundancies
- redundant repetitions
- refer back
- regular routine
- religious holiday
- repeat again
- repeated redundancies
- repetitious redundancies
- resulting effects
- retreating back
- return back
- revert back
- rice paddy
- root cause
- ruling junta
- secluded privacy
- safe sanctuary
- saw with my own eyes (Spoken by V-P Al Gore)
- see with one's own eyes
- serious danger
- sharp point
- shape and form
- sin taxes
- sink down
- small speck
- specific examples
- stellar astronomers
- string together
- staged scenario
- successful achievement
- sudden impulse
- suffered poorly
- surrounded on all sides
- sum total
- table mesa
- technical jargon
- temporary reprieve
- the hoi polloi ( hoi means "the" )
- tiny speck
- top priority
- total destruction
- totally demolished
- totally unnecessary
- tuna fish
- two-man tandem
- two-person tandem
- ultimate goal
- undergraduate student
- unexpected emergency
- unexpected surprise
- unhealthy sickness
- university college students
- unmarried bachelor
- unmarried old maid
- unnecessary redundancies
- usual custom
- useless and unnecessary
- vacillating back and forth
- VIN number (Vehicle Identification Number number)
- visible with your own eyes
- wall mural
- watching and observing
- wet water
- widow woman
- widow of the late (Whoever)
- widower man
- will and testament
- with au jus ( "au" means "with" )
- wordy and verbose
- working mother (Is there any other kind of mother whether at home or in the job market?)
- youthful teenagers