Cliché

Definition

A cliché is a saying, idea, or element of an artistic work that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning, novelty, or figurative or artistic power, even to the point of now being bland or uninteresting. In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning, referring to an expression imposed by conventionalized linguistic usage.

Related concepts

Ab ovo Accident (fallacy)Act (drama)Action (narrative)Action fiction Ad hominem Ad nauseam Adventure fiction Affirmative conclusion from a negative premise Affirming a disjunct Affirming the consequent Allegory Alternate history Ambiguity American English Analogy Anecdotal evidence Animistic fallacy Antagonist Antihero Aphorism Appeal to accomplishment Appeal to consequences Appeal to emotion Appeal to fear Appeal to flattery Appeal to loyalty Appeal to motive Appeal to nature Appeal to novelty Appeal to pity Appeal to ridicule Appeal to spite Appeal to the law Appeal to the stone Appeal to tradition Archenemy Archetype Argument Argument from analogy Argument from anecdote Argument from authority Argument from fallacy Argument from incredulity Argument from silence Argument to moderation Argumentum ad baculum Argumentum ad crumenam Argumentum ad lazarum Argumentum ad populum Association fallacy Autobiography Backstory Base rate fallacy Bathos Begging the question Biography British English Bromide (language)Bulverism Byronic hero Canon (fiction)Catastasis Catastrophe (drama)Catchphrase Character (arts)Character arc Character flaw Characterization Chekhov's gun Cherry picking Chivalric romance Chronological snobbery Circular reasoning Cliché (disambiguation)Cliffhanger Climax (narrative)Comedy Comic novel Comic relief Complex question Confidant Confirmation bias Conflation Conflict (narrative)Conjunction fallacy Continuity (fiction)Converse accident Correlation does not imply causation Correlative-based fallacies Creative nonfiction Crime fiction Crossover (fiction)David Mason (writer)Deal with the Devil Defense mechanism Denouement Denying the antecedent Denying the correlative Deus ex machina Deuteragonist Dialogue in writing Diction Diegesis Docufiction Dominant narrative Double-barreled question Double counting (fallacy)Drama Dramatic structure Dream world (plot device)Dystopia Ecological fallacy Eliezer Yudkowsky Epic poetry Epistolary novel Epitasis Equivocation Ergodic literature Erotic literature Etymological fallacy Eucatastrophe Exaggeration Existential fallacy Exposition (narrative)Fable Fabliau Fact Fairy tale Fallacies of illicit transference Fallacy Fallacy of accent Fallacy of composition Fallacy of division Fallacy of exclusive premises Fallacy of four terms Fallacy of relevance Fallacy of the single cause Fallacy of the undistributed middle False attribution False dilemma False equivalence False precision False protagonist Fantasy Faulty generalization Fiction Fiction writing Fictional city Fictional country Fictional location Fictional universe Figure of speech First-person narrative Flag-waving Flash fiction Flashback (narrative)Flashforward Focal character Foil (narrative)Folk wisdom Folklore Foreshadowing Formal fallacy Fourth wall Frame story Frank Sullivan (writer)French language Freytag's Pyramid Furtive fallacy Future tense Gambler's fallacy Gamebook Gary Blake Genetic fallacy Genre Glossary of rhetorical terms Good and evil Gothic double Gothic fiction Grammatical tense Gérard de Nerval Habit Hamartia Hard science fiction Hero Historical fiction Horror fiction I'm entitled to my opinion Idiom Illicit major Illicit minor Imagery In-group favoritism In medias res Informal fallacy Inspirational fiction Invented here Inverse gambler's fallacy Invincible ignorance fallacy Ipse dixit Irony Irrelevant conclusion Irreversible binomial Island mentality Jargon John Frederick Nims Kishōtenketsu Kitsch Leading question Legend Leitmotif Less Wrong List of fallacies List of genres List of narrative forms List of narrative techniques List of nonlinear narrative films List of nonlinear narrative television series List of underwater science fiction works List of writing genres Lists of fictional species Literal and figurative language Literary criticism Literary genre Literary theory Loaded language Loaded question Loki's Wager MacGuffin Macmillan Publishers (United States)Magic realism Map–territory relation Masked-man fallacy Mathematical fallacy McNamara fallacy Meme Metafiction Metaphor Modal scope fallacy Mode (literature)Mood (literature)Moral Moral development Moral equivalence Moralistic fallacy Motif (narrative)Motte-and-bailey fallacy Moving the goalposts Multiperspectivity Mystery fiction Myth Narration Narrative Narrative art Narrative hook Narrative identity Narrative paradigm Narrative poetry Narrative structure Narrative therapy Narratology Naturalistic fallacy Nautical fiction Negative conclusion from affirmative premises New York City Nirvana fallacy No true Scotsman Non-fiction novel Nonfiction Nonlinear narrative Not invented here Novel Novella Onomatopoeia Origin story Overwhelming exception Pace (narrative)Parable Parade of horribles Parallel novel Parallel universes in fiction Paranoid fiction Participle Past tense Peripeteia Philosophical fiction Phraseme Phraseology Picaresque novel Platitude Plot (narrative)Plot device Plot twist Poetic justice Poisoning the well Political fiction Political narrative Pop culture fiction Post hoc ergo propter hoc Premise (narrative)Prequel Present tense Printing plate Proof by assertion Proof by example Propositional calculus Protagonist Protasis Psychological fiction Psychologist's fallacy Pun Quantifier (logic)Quantifier shift Questionable cause Quoting out of context Rationalization (psychology)Reboot (fiction)Red-baiting Red herring Reductio ad Hitlerum Regression fallacy Reification (fallacy)Retroactive continuity Reveal (narrative)Rhetoric Robert Jay Lifton Robert W. Bly Rogue literature Romance (prose fiction)Romance novel Saga Sampling bias Satire Science fiction Screenwriting Sealioning Second-person narrative Secundum quid Self-fulfilling prophecy Self-insertion Semantic argument Sequel Series fiction Setting (narrative)Shaggy dog story Shitposting Short story Show, don't tell Slippery slope Slogan Slothful induction Snowclone Social conditioning Sorites paradox Southern Gothic Special pleading Speculative fiction Speech Stereotype Stereotype (printing)Stock character Stock characters Story arc Story within a story Storytelling Straight man Straw man Stream of consciousness Stream of unconsciousness Stylistic device Subplot Superhero fiction Supporting character Suppressed correlative Suspense Suspension of disbelief Syllogistic fallacy Symbolism (arts)Syntactic ambiguity Tall tale Tellability Texas sharpshooter fallacy The Four Great Errors Theme (narrative)Theological fiction Think of the children Third-person narrative Third-person omniscient narrative Thought-terminating cliché Thoughts and prayers Three-act structure Thriller (genre)Time travel Title character Tone (literature)Tone policing Tragic hero Tritagonist Trope (literature)Truism Truisms Tu quoque Two wrongs make a right Types of fiction with multiple endings Unreliable narrator Urban fiction Utopia Utopian and dystopian fiction Verisimilitude (fiction)Vignette (literature)Villain Western fiction Whataboutism Wisdom of repugnance Wishful thinking Worldbuilding Writing style

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