Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A trite or overused expression or idea.
  • noun A person or character whose behavior is predictable or superficial.
  • adjective Clichéd.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A stereotyped formula; a lifeless copy.
  • noun An electrotype or stereotype plate.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A stereotype plate or any similar reproduction of ornament, or lettering, in relief.
  • noun a trite or obvious remark.
  • noun a mode of obtaining an impression from a die or woodcut, or the like, by striking it suddenly upon metal which has been fused and is just becoming solid; also, the casting so obtained.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun printing A stereotype (printing plate).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a trite or obvious remark

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, past participle of clicher, to stereotype (imitative of the sound made when the matrix is dropped into molten metal to make a stereotype plate).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French cliché

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Examples

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Comments

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  • An overused word. Suggest the pleonastic tired old chesnut

    January 19, 2007

  • Avoid clichés like the plague.

    January 25, 2007

  • In stamp collecting, the individual unit that consists of a design of a single stamp, combined with others to make up the complete printing plate. Individual designs on modern one-piece printing plates are referred to as subjects.

    August 25, 2008

  • My observation is that Americans tend to use this as an adjective whereas in Australian English it is always used as a noun.

    June 5, 2021