commonplace

1 of 2

adjective

: commonly found or seen : ordinary, unremarkable

a commonplace occurrence

the large mergers that had become commonplace

Computers are commonplace in classrooms.

commonplaceness noun

commonplace

2 of 2

noun

com·​mon·​place ˈkä-mən-ˌplās 

1

a

: an obvious or trite comment : truism

It is a commonplace that a fool and his money are soon parted.

b

: something commonly found

A smartphone is a commonplace.

2

archaic : a striking passage entered in a commonplace book

Synonyms

Adjective

• average
• common
• cut-and-dried
• cut-and-dry
• everyday
• garden-variety
• normal
• ordinary
• prosaic
• routine
• run-of-the-mill
• standard
• standard-issue
• unexceptional
• unremarkable
• usual
• workaday

Noun

• banality
• bromide
• chestnut
• cliché
• cliche
• groaner
• homily
• platitude
• shibboleth
• trope
• truism

Examples of commonplace in a Sentence

Adjective

Drug use has become commonplace at rock concerts.

He photographed commonplace objects like lamps and bowls.

Noun

It is a commonplace that we only use a small part of our brain's capacity.

We now accept cell phones and laptop computers as commonplaces of everyday life.

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

This terminology has become commonplace among Russian officials and police officers who associate criminality with non-Slavic-looking migrants. —Anna Nemtsova, The Atlantic, 27 Dec. 2024

As a result, reports of college closures have become commonplace. —Bryan Penprase, Forbes, 23 Dec. 2024

Noun

Tour ’74 was Dylan’s first-ever arena tour—a rock commonplace by 1974 that had not even been imaginable in 1966. —Michaelangelo Matos, Rolling Stone, 17 Sep. 2024

Neumann was a lifelong social democrat whose writings evince neither sympathy for Soviet communism nor any whiff of the fellow-traveling commonplace among radicals during the 1930s and 1940s. —William E. Scheuerman, Foreign Affairs, 11 June 2013

Word History

Etymology

Noun and Adjective

translation of Latin locus communis widely applicable argument, translation of Greek koinos topos

First Known Use

Adjective

1616, in the meaning defined above

Noun

circa 1531, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Phrases Containing commonplace

• commonplace book

Kids Definition

commonplace

1 of 2 noun

com·​mon·​place ˈkäm-ən-ˌplās 

: something that is often seen, heard, or met with

commonplace

2 of 2 adjective

: very common or ordinary