Term of Art: Platitude

“Platitude: A commonplace statement or remark, especially if presented as though newly minted or uttered with an air of solemnity, as in ‘I’ve said it before and no doubt I’ll say it again: There is no smoke without fire.'”

Excerpted from: McArthur, Tom. The Oxford Concise Companion to the English Language. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.