as in cliché
an idea or expression that has been used by many people
ended his letter with the overused truism, "You can't win them all!"
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Recent Examples of truism
Warfare Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza’s Warfare is an admirable attempt to counter the truism that there’s no such thing as an anti-war movie — that all war movies, however gruesome or wrenching, effectively (and often unwittingly) wind up glamorizing combat to some degree.
—
Alison Willmore, Vulture, 1 Dec. 2025
Kemp does warn his readers to be skeptical of truisms about the nature of history and the odds of apocalypse.
—Linda Kinstler, The Atlantic, 1 Dec. 2025
But the movie’s soft-hearted underbelly fails to support that reading, and by the time the story finally arrives at its final moments, the unsparing cynicism that supplied its initial lift has been dragged back down to Earth by the weight of bland truisms.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 15 Oct. 2025
One ironclad truism about sports is that all streaks eventually come to an end.
—Pete Grathoff, Kansas City Star, 2 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for truism
Alison Willmore, Vulture, 1 Dec. 2025
Kemp does warn his readers to be skeptical of truisms about the nature of history and the odds of apocalypse.
—Linda Kinstler, The Atlantic, 1 Dec. 2025
But the movie’s soft-hearted underbelly fails to support that reading, and by the time the story finally arrives at its final moments, the unsparing cynicism that supplied its initial lift has been dragged back down to Earth by the weight of bland truisms.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 15 Oct. 2025
One ironclad truism about sports is that all streaks eventually come to an end.
—Pete Grathoff, Kansas City Star, 2 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for truism
Recent Examples of Synonyms for truism
Noun
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Li shook hands with Whitmarsh and exchanged platitudes with the other guests.—
Chang Che,
New Yorker,
8 Mar. 2026
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The gap between $0 and $600 million makes his observation harder to dismiss as a platitude.—
Ryan Brennan
March 3,
Charlotte Observer,
3 Mar. 2026
Noun
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The most commonplace and the most concerning, as a consequence, come by way of phishing campaigns.—
Davey Winder,
Forbes.com,
23 Jan. 2026
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The 1945 War Brides Act largely diverged from these previous measures, helping to dismantle the Asian exclusion made commonplace in the 19th and early 20th centuries.—
Anna Storti,
The Conversation,
8 Jan. 2026
Noun
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What does the phrase squeaky bum time, the racehorse Devon Loch, and the Portuguese proverb ‘morrer na prais’ all have in common?—
Ian Irving,
New York Times,
28 Feb. 2026
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The rooms The old Japanese proverb ‘*kachou fuugetsu’—*which translates as ‘flower, bird, wind, moon’ evoking a sense of the transient beauty of nature—is a key concept at the hotel.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
26 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Sure, Gyeong-nam is outwardly stoic and hard to read, but his tsundere trajectory and the office romance setting of his romance with Mi-rae are their own polished tropes.—
Kayti Burt,
Time,
6 Mar. 2026
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Blood Meridian throws out the Western trope of good versus evil in favor of a nihilist view of a world consumed by violence.—
Carolina A. Miranda,
The Atlantic,
5 Mar. 2026
Noun
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So to get to be playing the character who originated a saying that is a huge part of my vocabulary — and that I’ve been so obsessed with for so long — is crazy.—
Brian Davids,
HollywoodReporter,
7 Mar. 2026
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Models are born, not made, to tweak Simone de Beauvoir’s famous saying.—
Sophie Gilbert,
The Atlantic,
6 Mar. 2026
Noun
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The case exposed the depressing banality of it all—the man smiling politely at you at the bakery, only to rape your comatose body at night.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
4 Mar. 2026
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The scale and range of Dominique Pelicot’s partners in crime showed the terrible banality of their acts, and how easily society had allowed them.—
Gaby Wood,
Vogue,
21 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Despite their clear affection for these women, the Dardenne brothers never sugarcoat their characters’ unenviable circumstance or latch onto phony bromides to alleviate our anxiety.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
16 Jan. 2026
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Doping the Undopable The work focuses on cesium lead bromide nanoparticles known as CsPbBr3.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
8 Dec. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Truism.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/truism. Accessed 10 Mar. 2026.
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