platitude
NounUS[plat-ih-tood]/ˈplætɪˌtud/3 syllables
Open English WordNet
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Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Plat′i·tude noun
Origin: F., from plat flat. See Plate.
1. The quality or state of being flat, thin, or insipid; flat commonness; triteness; staleness of ideas of language.
To hammer one golden grain of wit into a sheet of infinite platitude.— John Lothrop Motley
2. A thought or remark which is flat, dull, trite, or weak; a truism; a commonplace.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54
The Devil's Dictionary
PLATITUDE, n. The fundamental element and special glory of popular literature. A thought that snores in words that smoke. The wisdom of a million fools in the diction of a dullard. A fossil sentiment in artificial rock. A moral without the fable. All that is mortal of a departed truth. A demi-tasse of milk-and-mortality. The Pope's-nose of a featherless peacock. A jelly-fish withering on the shore of the sea of thought. The cackle surviving the egg. A desiccated epigram.