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Writing Tips

Identical twin babies are a double helping of ‘cute’.

With words, though, doubling up on meaning is not such a great idea.

It’s always wise to avoid tautologies. Why would you ask your audiences to read more than they need to?

What’s a tautology?

The word, as you might guess, comes from the Greek words tauto, meaning ‘same’ and logos, meaning ‘word’. It basically means saying the same thing twice, even if using slightly different words.

Everyone is familiar with the tautology ‘8 am in the morning’. It’s a silly thing to say because ‘am’ means ante meridiem, which is Latin for ‘before noon’, i.e ‘morning’.

Note: Don’t confuse this with ‘antimeridian’, which is something else entirely.

The other favourite example is ‘ATM machine’. The ‘M’ stands for ‘machine’ already, so that makes it a type of ‘machine machine’.

Note: It doesn’t mean Automatic Teller Machine, as some people think; it stands for Automated Teller Machine).

The same with ‘PIN number’. Don’t forget your Personal Identity Number Number.

5 tautologies you should try to avoid