n. pl. tau·tol·o·gies 1. a. Needless repetition of the same sense in different words; redundancy. b. An instance of such repetition. 2. Logic A statement composed of simpler statements in such a way that it is logically true whether the simpler statements are factually true or false; for example, the statement Either it will rain tomorrow or it will not rain tomorrow. [Late Latin tautologia, from Greek tautologiā, from tautologos, redundant : tauto-, tauto- + logos, saying; see -LOGY.] tau′to·logi·cal (tôt′l-ŏjĭ-kəl), tau′to·logic (-ĭk), tau·tolo·gous (-tŏlə-gəs) adj. tau′to·logi·cal·ly, tau·tolo·gous·ly adv. |
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