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Tautophrase

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A tautophrase is a phrase or sentence that tautologically defines a term by repeating that term. The word was coined in 2006 by William Safire in The New York Times.

Examples include:

  • "Brexit means Brexit" (Theresa May)
  • "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do" (John Wayne)
  • "It ain't over 'till it's over" (Yogi Berra)
  • "What's done is done" (Shakespeare's Macbeth)
  • "Tomorrow is tomorrow" (Antigone (Sophocles))
  • "A rose is a rose is a rose" (Gertrude Stein)
  • "A man's a man for a' that" (Robert Burns)
  • "Facts are facts"
  • "Enough is enough"
  • "Let bygones be bygones"
  • "A deal is a deal is a deal"
  • "Once it's gone, it's gone"
  • "It is what it is"
  • "If it works, it works"
  • "If you know, you know"
  • "Boys will be boys"
  • "A win is a win"
  • "You do you"
  • "A la guerre comme à la guerre" — A French phrase literally meaning "at war as at war", and figuratively roughly equivalent to the English phrase "All's fair in love and war"
  • Qué será, será or Che será, será — English loan from Spanish and Italian respectively (although these phrases are ungrammatical in those languages), meaning "Whatever will be, will be."
  • "Call a spade a spade"
  • "Once you’re committed, you’re committed"
  • "What will be, will be"
  • "What wins out wins out"
  • "I don’t care how much you know, if you get caught in a fire, you’re caught in a fire"
  • "Game is game"
  • "Nothing changes if nothing changes"

See also

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References

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