What's the difference between adage and platitude?

Adage


Definition:

  • (n.) An old saying, which has obtained credit by long use; a proverb.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) One of the great cautionary adages of our culture is: "Be careful what you wish for; you might just get it."
  • (2) What does the slung-about, bounced-around adage that "Politics is show-business for ugly people" actually mean?
  • (3) Certainly, the galvanising call for submissions brings to mind that inclusive Varsovian adage: “The entire nation builds its capital.” For Warsaw’s reconstruction, though, it was the work of a single artist that provided the crucial blueprint.
  • (4) It reminds me of the old adage that we teach people how to treat us.
  • (5) Depending on your tastes, that verdict might either bring to mind Marx’s adage about history being repeated first as tragedy then farce, or the immortal words of Jay Gatsby: “Can’t repeat the past?
  • (6) The old adage, "You are what you eat," is not always reliable, as demonstrated in this mixed-longitudinal study of men that began in 1969.
  • (7) Working with researchers at the University of Surrey and being exposed to the wealth of evidence out there, it is clear to me that the old adage "rest is best" no longer applies.
  • (8) It has some commentators repeating an old adage about newspapers, repeated by Bill Clinton when he was president: "Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel."
  • (9) You can only beat what’s put in front of you, as the old adage goes … but the Potters’ recent run of fixtures could scarcely have been kinder: Bournemouth are the only side inside the top 10 they have played in over two months and they beat Mark Hughes’s men.
  • (10) At the time I thought it was a clever inversion of an old adage, referring to Labour's 18 years in opposition.
  • (11) As in Aesop's adage, the ego ideal is at the source of the best and the worst of things.
  • (12) The three dimensional display capabilities of the Adage AGT-30 are used to present the reconstructed structures.
  • (13) As the African adage says, “a man must be like a flowering pole, he must grow wherever he is planted”.
  • (14) Diane Abbott is Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington Simon Danczuk Simon Danczuk: 'Voters want a party they can trust on immigration' There's an old adage in politics that if you don't think you can win an argument, be sure to change the subject.
  • (15) Two-and-a-half years on, and regulators have lived up to the adage that those who don't learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them.
  • (16) That’s why the government guidelines don’t say, ‘Don’t drink’; they say, ‘OK drink, but only modestly.’ It’s like a little of what doesn’t kill you cures you.” This adage also applies in an unexpected place – to broccoli, the luvvie of the high-street “superfood” detox salad.
  • (17) Don’t sterilise everything that comes into contact with your child’s mouth, within reason.” In fact, the one piece of advice Arrieta offers mothers is to forget the adage “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” “One thing I don’t do any more – and wish others would stop – is carrying a hand sanitiser gel.
  • (18) Caraiva, Bahia Steven Chew, contributing editor Conde Nast Traveller There's an adage with remote Brazilian beaches: first go the hippies, then the yachties, then the French ... Caraiva is still at the happy-hippy stage of discovery and even then only for a brief period in the summer.
  • (19) The adage "do no harm" should be kept in mind in the counseling, diagnosis, and treatment of HIV-infected individuals.
  • (20) Baseball fans are familiar with the old adage “pitching wins championships”.

Platitude


Definition:

  • (n.) The quality or state of being flat, thin, or insipid; flat commonness; triteness; staleness of ideas of language.
  • (n.) A thought or remark which is flat, dull, trite, or weak; a truism; a commonplace.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In any case, people had tired of combative rhetoric and wanted softer platitudes.
  • (2) It’s clear she lends a sympathetic ear to many reformist ideas; in London last year she said: “We must constantly renew Europe’s political shape so that it keeps up with the times.” Beyond the platitudes, Merkel is open to reforms to the internal market, to competitiveness, to the bureaucracy and even to some of the institutions.
  • (3) Mills said: "Young people are not going to settle for the political platitudes that were sold to the post-independence generation.
  • (4) She said no surprises about the election date should mean "no excuses",  a clear barb at the conservative opposition leader, Tony Abbott, whom she has criticised as announcing "platitudes not policies" and giving few costings for his promises.
  • (5) The duke’s statements about business, which to our tin ears sound like simplistic platitudes of the first water, are in fact fantastically complex and prescient exercises of soft power without which our economy simply could not function.
  • (6) Of course, at the end of the day, though, what workers really need is pay, not platitudes.
  • (7) Don Berwick's report on patient safety in the NHS has been attacked for being "strong on platitudes" and lacking in clear instructions.
  • (8) Johnson is the master-builder of that image, deflecting every lie, every gaffe, dishonesty and U-turn with some self-deprecating metaphor: calling his feigned indecision “veering all over the place like a shopping trolley” was worth a world of worthy platitudes.
  • (9) She provides a strong contrast to her sanctimonious, humourless sister Mary, who spouts empty platitudes about acceptable female conduct.
  • (10) Time and time again Corbyn ducks saying things like that, preferring to shelter behind platitudes like “give peace a chance”.
  • (11) Humble and hard working” may be the standard response from footballers asked about their team-mates but with Gabriel it gets repeated so often and in a tone so convincing that it no longer sounds like a platitude.
  • (12) Such “we are all one world” platitudes infuriate those whose families and communities will bear the impact of any new migration, coming from those who have no intention of bearing it at all.
  • (13) By and large, however, Obama stuck to empty platitudes that no one could disagree with (“we need to ... protect our children’s information” and “I intend to protect a free and open internet”) rather than offering concrete new proposals.
  • (14) Please don't give me the "aunts are loved too" platitudes.
  • (15) Enough platitudes and excuses: here is the truth about this week of sexism Read more But you don’t just tell people to respect women, you show that you respect women.
  • (16) You know if you've read Capital or if you've got the Cliff Notes , you know that his imaginings of how classical Marxism – of how his logic would work when applied – kind of devolve into such nonsense as the withering away of the state and platitudes like that.
  • (17) Now we're onto the junior senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, who is spouting equally meaningless platitudes.
  • (18) "We need everybody to remember how we felt 100 days ago and to make sure that what we said was not just a bunch of platitudes.
  • (19) I’m not interested in platitudes or buzzwords like “anti-austerity” or “aspiration”.
  • (20) Malcolm Turnbull refuses to denounce Trump's travel ban Read more Facebook Twitter Pinterest Turnbull: ‘When I have frank advice to give an American president, I give it privately’ This is not the time for the Australian government to offer mealy-mouthed platitudes about not commenting on the policies of other countries.