Word of the Day: Truism

 

1. A statement that is obviously true and says nothing new or interesting. 2. (Logic) A proposition that states nothing beyond what is implied by any of its terms.

"My grandfather gave his advice in truisms, like 'practice makes perfect.'" "Instead of falling back on a truism, try to give personalized feedback to each student." "Points were deducted from this assignment because you missed several truisms in the proof."

English, early 18th century

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A truism is essentially a true statement — what's wrong with that? The underlying sentiment behind a truism is that it's so obviously true that anyone could see the point and there's nothing original or interesting about the statement.