truisms

noun

plural of truism
as in clichés
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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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of truisms Spain’s success over the past five years has undermined many long-standing political-economic truisms. — Rogé Karma, The Atlantic, 1 June 2026 The play isn’t subtle; the final sequence leans hard on truisms about addiction and trauma, which are affecting but overly explicit. — Sheldon Pearce, New Yorker, 20 Feb. 2026 One of the truisms in the past for Team Canada at some best-on-best events is needing a few games to find its game. — Pierre Lebrun, New York Times, 12 Feb. 2026 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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for truisms
  1. platitudes
  2. sayings
  3. tropes
  4. banalities
  5. bromides
  6. proverbs
Noun
  • Today, Instagram unveiled a refresh of its wordmark, accompanied by the usual bland corporate platitudes these kinds of announcements are always packaged with.
    — Aurich Lawson, ArsTechnica, 13 Aug. 2026
  • Not everybody needs to spend the rest of their life totally abstinent with a cup of shitty coffee in a Styrofoam cup regurgitating platitudes.
    — James Hibberd, HollywoodReporter, 12 Aug. 2026
Definition of platitudes
Noun
  • Teachers of science, mathematics and English were expected to include Quranic verses, sayings and traditions attributed to the Prophet Muhammad or other religious messages in their lessons.
    — Fatima Faizi, NPR, 14 Aug. 2026
  • Personalize the labels with sweet sayings, their initials, or even anniversary dates to commemorate the occasion.
    — Kate McGregor, Architectural Digest, 11 Aug. 2026
Definition of sayings
Noun
  • The language of a sociopath is very easy to have a mustached, twirly guy speaking and pontificating and vaguely threatening tropes, but to really give him a kind of humanity, vulnerability.
    — Beatrice Verhoeven, HollywoodReporter, 15 Aug. 2026
  • Its real interest, though, seems to lie beyond both DC Universe lore and the procedural tropes of the rural murder investigations that occupy most of its runtime.
    — Judy Berman, Time, 14 Aug. 2026
Definition of tropes
Noun
  • And even though access to such banalities may sound brain-deadening, and at best dull, some of the most famous people in the world are now live-streamers.
    — Brady Brickner-Wood, New Yorker, 12 Aug. 2026
  • For all the women looking up at me to think of me not as a crying heap on a toilet whose baby never latched but as someone who found meaning in all of our daily banalities.
    — Danielle Parker, CBS News, 4 Aug. 2026
Definition of banalities
Noun
  • The president used similar bromides in private calls to assuage allies, including Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson, before launching the war in February, according to people familiar with the conversations.
    — Vivian Salama, The Atlantic, 3 June 2026
  • While these songs might appear to be somewhat straightforward EBM that wear their politics on their latex sleeve, there’s a level of ambiguity at work that moves Kissing Luck Goodbye past its own bromides and into deeper artistic territory.
    — Sadie Sartini Garner, Pitchfork, 16 Apr. 2026
Definition of bromides
Noun
  • The third film in director Éric Rohmer’s series Comedies and Proverbs, Pauline at the Beach explores the emotions (and delusions) around summer love.
    — Air Mail, Air Mail, 20 June 2026
  • For nine months, Erasmus spent his short nights in a modest dorm and his long days in the print shop, expanding on his collection of proverbs Adagiorum chiliades while Aldus proofread, craftsman carefully laying sets of print and rolling paper through the press.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 24 Nov. 2025
Definition of proverbs

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truism
truisms
trull
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Cite this Entry

“Truisms.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/truisms. Accessed 19 Aug. 2026.

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Nglish: Translation of truisms for Spanish Speakers

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