Commonplace

How to spell commonplace

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce commonplace

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does commonplace mean?

1. adjectiveSo ordinary or frequent as to be unremarkable.
2. nounA trite or obvious remark that offers nothing original.

Commonplace in a sentence

• adjective

  Working from home has become quite commonplace since the office closed.

• noun

  The manager's speech offered little beyond a dull commonplace about teamwork.

• adjective

  Contactless payment is now commonplace in shops across the country.

• noun

  Saying that hard work pays off is a familiar commonplace in motivational books.

Where does commonplace come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word began life as the two separate words 'common place', a direct English rendering of the Latin phrase locus communis, which itself translated the Greek koinos topos meaning 'common ground' or 'general theme'. In classical rhetoric a 'common place' was a stock argument or general observation that a speaker could apply to many situations, and by the 1500s scholars kept a 'commonplace book' in which they copied striking quotations and useful passages for reuse. Because such books were stuffed with general, widely applicable remarks, the joined-up word 'commonplace' came to mean a trite or unoriginal saying, and from there it broadened into the modern adjective meaning ordinary, everyday and unremarkable. The 'common' element traces back to Latin communis, 'shared by all', while 'place' descends from Latin platea, a broad street or open space. Remembering that it is literally 'common' plus 'place' fused together explains both the double 'm' and the way the word is spelled as a single solid form.

How the word is built

• common (shared, ordinary, from Latin communis)
• place (from Latin platea, open space); a calque of Latin locus communis