(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.
Platitudinous
Definition:
(a.) Abounding in platitudes; of the nature of platitudes; uttering platitudes.
Example Sentences:
(1) These platitudinous attempts to reassure that everything would be sorted out with goodwill – well, if this is your proposition to take us out of the 40-year relationship, where is your detail?” There are other reasons why support for staying in the EU is considerably more solid in Northern Ireland than in the UK as a whole.
(2) Like a dancer in the corps de ballet required to grin despite the pain, she smiles throughout her answers (or, quite often, platitudinous non-answers).
(3) I always remember the startled look of the platitudinous young vicar who visited our house after my grandad died, when my mum said, "Don't come round here with your mumbo-jumbo.
(4) "If the union really wishes to play a role, it must escape from the situation where defining a common position comes down to seeking the lowest common denominator in platitudinous declarations or ritualised diplomatic tours."
(5) Later they would sit in a half-empty press room in the bowels of the stadium and, after half heartedly answering a couple of platitudinous questions from the host, be asked whether they were on drugs.
(6) Many spiritual leaders can sound obscure and platitudinous at once, as if they were simultaneously translating their message from some inner Tibetan original – the Dalai Lama really is.
(7) I have always been deeply suspicious of the kind of rhetoric that modern pop surrounds itself with: all that platitudinous “just be yourself”, “if you dream it you can do it” stuff.
(8) After all, the lesson of the past few years in celebrity has been that there is no problem in the world too complex that it cannot be addressed by the emotionalised, platitudinous pronunciations of an entertainer.