an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.
the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.
a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.
Origin: 1525–35; translation of Latinlocus commūnis, itself translation of Greekkoinòs tópos
Related forms
com·mon·place·ly, adverb
com·mon·place·ness, noun
un·com·mon·place, adjective
Synonyms 2. Commonplace, banal, hackneyed, stereotyped, trite describe words, remarks, and styles of expression that are lifeless and uninteresting. Commonplace characterizes thought that is dull, ordinary, and platitudinous: commonplace and boring. Something is banal that seems inane, insipid, and pointless: a heavy-handed and banal affirmation of the obvious.Hackneyed characterizes something that seems stale and worn out through overuse: a hackneyed comparison.Stereotyped emphasizes the fact that situations felt to be similar invariably call for the same thought in exactly the same form and the same words: so stereotyped as to seem automatic.Trite describes something that was originally striking and apt, but which has become so well-known and been so commonly used that all interest has been worn out of it: true but trite.3. cliché, bromide, platitude, stereotype.
1549, "a statement generally accepted," lit. translation of L. locus communis, from Gk. koinos topos "general topic." The adj. sense of "having nothing original" dates from 1609.