Cliche Definition

klēzhā

cliches

noun

A stereotype printing plate.

Webster's New World

An expression or idea that has become trite.

Webster's New World

A person or character whose behavior is predictable or superficial.

American Heritage

Something, most often a phrase or expression, that is overused or used outside its original context, so that its original impact and meaning are lost. A trite saying; a platitude. [from 19th c.]

Kidnapping the love interest during a film is a bit of a cliché.

Wiktionary

Informal form of cliché.

Wiktionary

Synonyms:

Synonyms:
hackneyed expression
hackneyed phrase
vapidity
staleness
triviality
threadbare phrase
tired phrase
triteness
trite phrase
saying
proverb
slogan
stereotype
commonplace
truism

Antonyms:

Antonyms:
nuance
coinage

adjective

Clichéd.

American Heritage

Other Word Forms of Cliche

Noun

Singular:

cliche

Plural:

cliches, clichs

Origin of Cliche

French past participle of clicher to stereotype (imitative of the sound made when the matrix is dropped into molten metal to make a stereotype plate)

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
Borrowing from French cliché

From Wiktionary