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cliché

nounadjectiveverbattested in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ˈkliː.ʃeɪ//
  • United States//kliˈʃeɪ//

Something, most often a phrase or expression, that is overused or used outside its original context, so that its original impact and meaning are lost. A trite saying; a platitude.

noun

  1. 1

    Something, most often a phrase or expression, that is overused or used outside its original context, so that its original impact and meaning are lost. A trite saying; a platitude.

    The villain kidnapping the love interest is a bit of a cliché.

    I know it's a bit of a cliché, but love really does conquer all.

    Clever got me this far Then tricky got me in Eye on what I'm after I don't need another friend Smile and drop the cliche Till you think I'm listening Take just what I came for Then I'm out the door again

    Don’t believe what they’re saying everything’s is gonna change How could it be ever the same? It’s just a cliché fading Till we go our separate ways

  2. 2

    A stereotype (printing plate).

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French cliché.

adjective

  1. 1

    Clichéd; having the characteristics of a cliché.

verb

  1. 1

    To use a cliché; to make up a word or a name that sounds like a cliché.

    He clichéd at me. He clichéd at me in a perky, condescending tone.

Forms

plural
clichés
comparative
more cliché
superlative
most cliché
past tense
clichéd, clichéed
past participle
clichéd, clichéed
present participle
clichéing
third person singular
clichés
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).