Department of Redundancy Department/Real Life

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • This page is a self-explanatory page of redundancy. So if you look for an example of redundancy, this page is one!
  • In Journalism, a sentence where the same point is made more than once is a called a "priasm."
    • The priasm, "redundant priasm is redundant" is a redundant priasm.
    • Avoiding redundancies is an important part of journalistic training. Sometimes it's fairly simple (see the "ATM machine" example under "RAS Syndrome" immediately below), but sometimes it's a matter of realizing that certain words mean more than most people think. For example, if someone "drowns," by definition they have died. Saying "So and So drowned to death Wednesday..." is a redundancy. Ditto with "electrocuted" and "strangled."
  • Many Acronyms suffer from RAS Syndrome, or Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndrome:
    • The "HIV Virus." HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, so calling it the HIV Virus is Human Immunodeficiency Virus Virus. AIDS stands for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, so calling it "the AIDS syndrome" (or heaven forbid, the "AIDS virus," which doesn't exist) is calling it the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Syndrome.
    • Much like HIV and AIDS, 'ATM Machine' is redundant. ATM stands for Automated Teller Machine.
    • Please never tell anyone your PIN Number for the ATM Machine.
    • Especially if it's the PIN number to your MasterCard card that you're putting in...um, yeah.
    • Not to mention the VIN number to your car.
      • Or your ATV vehicle.
    • There's also 'EMP Pulse'. EMP stands for Electro-Magnetic Pulse.
    • Some summer camps have the acronym TNC (That's Not Camp), which has led to the phrase "That's TNC!"
    • In Canada, political commentators and other people frequently refer to "the NDP party." NDP stands for New Democratic Party.
    • Don't forget "MSDS sheet" (i.e. "Material Safety Data Sheet Sheet"). However, "PCV valve" is an aversion, as the V there stands for "ventilation", not "valve".
      • True, but many non-mechanical types think PCV stands for "Pollution Control Valve", making PCV valve "Pollution Control Valve valve".
    • and OG Gangster - Original Gangster Gangster
    • The NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) can sometimes get it from both ends, as demonstrated by This article on repairing the Nintendo NES System.
      • Except the Wii (which is just "Wii"), the official title for all of Nintendo's home consoles have Nintendo in them, making it redundant to say "Nintendo SNES", "Nintendo N64", or "Nintendo GCN". Strangely enough, Nintendo's portables don't suffer this problem.
    • Adobe AIR stands for Adobe Adobe Intergrated Runtime. By Adobe.
    • Most professional sports are referred to with redundant names. NFL Football is National Football League Football. NHL Hockey is National Hockey League Hockey. The worst offenders are MLB Baseball, MLS Soccer, and MLL Lacrosse, which translate to Major League Baseball Baseball, Major League Soccer Soccer, and Major League Lacrosse Lacrosse.
    • The SAT test. SAT stands for Scholastic Aptitude Test.
      • Used to. It doesn't mean anything anymore so it isn't really an example now.
    • Or a local hospital with a CDI Imaging Service. CDI stands for Center for Diagnostic Imaging.
    • Use of this page is being monitored by closed-circuit CCTV television cameras.
  • A female masseuse is a female female massage-giver. (The Spear Counterpart being "masseur".)
  • As exemplified in a Barney the Dinosaur episode (which is also used daily on a regular basis): "A fiesta is a great big party". "Fiesta" is Spanish for party (that includes your typical Mexican fiesta and Sweet 16 parties), translating it as "A party is a great big party".
    • To be fair, Barney the Dinosaur is an educational children's show, so this is more equivalent to saying "A banana is a yellow fruit", which is redundant to someone who knows what a banana is, but is educational for those who don't. Similarly, "A fiesta is a great big party" teaches children, those learning to speak, and kids, the meaning of the word "fiesta".
  • Wil Wheaton used the technique in his keynote address to the Penny Arcade Expo in 2007, cataloguing all the places where he could play arcade games: "Liquor stores, donut shops, liquor stores, record shops, liquor stores, pizza parlors, 7-Elevens that sometimes sold liquor..."
  • An error on Windows Vista can lead to complaints about the "System Identification Service service" or some such not working.
    • Similarly, on Windows 7, "Apply Personal Policy Printers policy"
  • Or Timor Leste, which used to be East Timor, which would be Timor Timur in the native language, which in any case means East East.
  • Common internet phrase "x [noun] is x", as in "Redundant adjective is redundant." Especially LOLcats, as in "Happy cat is Happy", "Serious cat is Serious", etc. It originated with "Longcat is looooooooooooooong."
  • Of the multiple languages variety: ESPN Deportes. ESPN stands for Entertainment & Sports Programming Network, making the Spanish-language affiliate (which actually covers just about anything out of the United States, even English-language stuff like soccer games in England) literally translate to Entertainment and Sports Programming Network Sports.
  • A t-shirt that reads: "Camp Redundancy Camp. Est. 1987 (the year the camp was founded)." The picture on the front of the shirt features two suns, two trees, and two canoes.
  • People say "Rio Grande River." Or in English, "Great River River."
    • The La Brea Tar Pits. "Brea" is Spanish for tar or a pit of tar, so the name can translate to "The The Tar Pit Tar Pits."
    • The Los Angeles Angels.
    • The Sahara desert, "ṣaḥrā´" being arabic for desert this becomes "the desert desert".
    • The Faroe Islands are called the Føroyar (the Før Islands) by the locals, so this becomes "the Far Islands Islands".
    • There's a town in England called Torpenhow. 'Tor', 'pen' and 'how' are all synonyms for 'hill'. There is allegedly a nearby landmark called Torpenhow Hill.
    • All of these are contained in perhaps the biggest example of all: the Milky Way Galaxy. The term galaxy originated from the Greek galaxias, meaning milky.
    • There are a lot of rivers, mostly in the UK, called the River Avon. 'Avon' is often derived from words in various Celtic languages that mean 'river'. So 'River Avon', in many cases, means 'River River'.
  • The official names of a number of U.S. cities take the form "The City of Hometown City."
    • This one is a bit of an exception: An area called "Whatever City" may in fact be, legally speaking, a town or even an unincorporated area. "The City of Hometown City" is a clarification, not a true redundancy.
    • Then there are examples such as The City Known as the Town of Methuen. It can't be called just a town, cos New England towns don't work that way, even if they're incorporated. There are also other 'towns' around New England that display the same naming quirk, for the same reason.
  • The classical Chinese philosopher Mo Di was referred to by his followers as Zimozi. Normally the honorific zi means 'master', as in Laozi, 'old master' (the purported author of the Daodejing), or Kongzi, 'Master Kong' (better known as Confucius). Mo's followers doubled up on it, though, so a direct translation of the name is 'Master Mo our Master'.
    • Also in the Chinese language, "shan" means "mountain". Witness the abundance of maps with place names such as "Mt. Huangshan" (Mt. Yellow Mountains).
      • Though it can be justified by saying that a foreigner doesn't know what shan mean so a mt. before it is needed. It is not seen on maps in Chinese.
  • In Germany, sports reporters like to say the phrase "Die La Ola Welle" ("The La Ola Wave") meaning, of course, "The The Wave Wave" (or in German "Die Die Welle Welle") And no, it's not pronounced like the English "die" at all; it sounds more like the English name for the letter D.
    • Kind of makes you want to refer to it as "The Die La Ola Welle Wave", or maybe as The DLOW Wave.
  • Some soldiers and quite a few Call of Duty players refer to an Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight as an "ACOG Scope."
  • In Auckland, New Zealand, there is a learning institute called AUT University, that is, Auckland University of Technology University.
  • "Our late editor is dead. He died of death, which killed him."
  • Anywhere in Canada with a reasonable expectation of bilingualism, signs saying everything twice can be quite common. Partout au Canada où l'on peut raisonnablement espérer du bilinguisme, on trouve des panneaux qui présentent la même information deux fois (d'où la redondance). Funniest, though, are street signs, which are funnier than the other signs; you can find signs that literally say "Avenue Taché Avenue" in Winnipeg. Plus drôle encore, les panneaux de certains noms de rue (qui sont plus drôles que les autres); on en trouve certains à Winnipeg qui annoncent « Avenue Taché Avenue », c'est une avenue de Winnipeg, la capitale du Manitoba.
    • For that matter, any officially broadcast communication can happen in both English and French (or French and English, as the case may be); all federal government documents (and a great deal of other government documents, and non-government documents, and documents in general) are printed in both English and French (or French and English). Used for comedic effect on The Simpsons - but saying that is redundant, since pretty much everything has.
      • This is because our two official languages are English and French, so anything official in Canada, be it a government report or broadcast, a product, or a public service, like from a bank or the police, must be issued/be made available in both languages.
    • This happens on Spain too, where sometimes you can find things in up to four different languages (Spanish, Catalonian, Galician and Basque). At least 2 isn't weird in places. Oddly enough, everyone understands Spanish, making this even more redundant.
    • Ontario (Toronto specifically) has a road named Avenue Road. There's also Rue Crescent, or Crescent Street, in Montreal.
  • University College London. There are historical reasons why it's called that (being established as a separate university, then becoming a subsidary college of the University of London), but it doesn't stop the redundancy. Especially to some students from non-British backgrounds, where College actually means University.
    • Probably because in some countries, there's two kinds of Colleges: Community College and University College.
  • The University of Maryland University College. Need I say more?
  • In New York, there is a law that it is illegal to do anything illegal.
  • In the North-West of England (particularly around the Wigan Borough), it's common for people to say "I'm well X, me" or some other variation.
    • "Moi, je", "Toi, tu", etc., are common sentence starters in France, French Canada, and some parts of England.
      • Although in England, where they speak English rather than French, they tend to say this in English instead.
        • It actually pops up in America fairly often, too.
      • In parts of the US where they French, you can hear it a lot. From the French speakers.
  • Some places in America it's common to begin a sentence by saying "Also, too..." Sarah Palin (or Tina Fey as Sarah Palin) often did this.
  • The Armenian terrorist organization: Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia
    • Not necessarily redundant if you consider that they are stating both where they are based and exactly which country they are liberating (their own country).
  • The results of this Google search of TVTropes.[context?]
  • This Wikimedia Commons category.
  • Vinegar, the scientific name of which is Acetic Acid, or quite literally "Acidic Acid".
  • Saab AB, where Saab is Svenska Aeroplan AB. The full name thus translated roughly as 'Swedish Aeroplanes Incorporated Incorporated'.
    • Another Swedish example: the Swedish word for the American Bison is 'Bisonoxe' - in other words, 'wild ox-ox'.
    • Also, CD is commonly called "CD-skiva", translated "Compact Disc Disc".
      • LGF-fordon. Långsamtgående fordon-fordon. Slowly moving vehicles-vehicles.
  • In consumer technology, we have LCD Displays and LED lights, even though "display" and "light" are already in the acronyms.
  • The newest (and awesomest yet) Russian Cool Plane, PAK FA. "PAK FA" is an acronym that stands for, in a very literal translation, "Future Aviation System for Front Aviation". The Other Wiki mitigates the redundancy a little.
  • In France, a bank (The Crédit Lyonnais, to name it) recently created a brand : LCL (Le Crédit Lyonnais). So now, the bank name is le LCL : le Le Crédit Lyonnais, translated as the The Crédit Lyonnais.
    • This gets worse as LCL is a brand for company's banking and insurance subsidiaries : La Banque LCL Le Crédit Lyonnais, the The Crédit Lyonnais The Crédit Lyonnais bank.
    • Another case of this in the US with RBC Bank, where RBC stands for Royal Bank of Canada, its parent company.
    • United Missouri Bank abbreviates itself as UMB Bank (United Missouri Bank Bank).
  • The Colemanballs column in Private Eye collects Real Life examples uttered by sports commentators.
  • The geek news website Slashdot.org. It's full URL is http://slashdot.org. Or if you say that aloud: etch, tee, tee, pee, colon, slash, slash, slash, dot, dot, org.
    • The Web site for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, often referred to as PennDOT, has as its address www.dot.state.pa.us or, said aloud, "double-you, double-you, double-you, dot, dot, dot, state, dot, pee, ay, dot, you, ess."
  • "Have you got any icecream icecream?" "No, but we have icecream icecream icecream."
  • There's a street in Colorado Springs called "Table Mesa Way". "Mesa" is, of course, Spanish for "Table".
  • Applies to naming of some firearms, e.g. "SVD Dragunov" (SVD alone means Snayperskaya Vintovka Dragunova, which stands for Dragunov's Sniper Rifle), "Simonov SKS", or "Browning BAR".
    • For a lot of German weapons, if you attach what kind of weapon it is after saying it, it becomes redundant. For example, saying an MG-42 machinegun is redundant, as MG stands for Maschinengewehr, or literally, a machine gun.
  • A recent state law of Arizona, among other things, explicitly makes it a crime to be an illegal immigrant. It isn't an absurd law as such; it allows State officials and police to try immigrants instead of giving them to the Feds, but, on the other hand, there are constitutional provisions to prevent redundant laws.
  • Beijing has a Chinatown.
  • NASCAR, or the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing.
  • AC current and DC current. AC stand for Alternating current, while DC stands for Direct current.
  • In South-East Asia where ID cards are prevalent and mandatory in most countries (ironically, these IDs were originally issued to combat communism), an ID card is also known as an "IC Card" when referred to in English. IC meaning "Identity Card". So yeah, Identity Card card.
    • Note that "ID Card" is also redundant - "ID" means "Identity Document". It's either an "ID" or an "identity card", but not an "ID Card".
  • The Welsh are stereotypically known for saying things such as, "Whose coat is that jacket?" and "Whose shoes are those boots?"
  • The Zoological Museum of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg
  • In certain Choi Kwang Do schools, there's the STORM Team. The Special Team of Role Models Team.
  • Try this. And yes, you can reGoogle the same site to make nearly infinite mini-Googles.
  • Bedbug Bites: Pictures of bedbug bites by real people bitten by bedbugs
  • Nationwide Insurance, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, home of the Ohio State Buckeyes, is currently running a promotion looking for the "World's Greatest Buckeye Fan in the World." This is almost certainly deliberate.
    • Given their mascot is known as "The World's Greatest Spokesman in the World", quite likely.
  • In Northeast Ohio, there are towns named Highland Hills and Highland Heights.
  • If you've ever studied logical proofs, you may be familiar with the phrase, "congruent parts of congruent triangles are congruent".
    • A small correction: The actual theorem is "corresponding parts of congruent figures are congruent." Still mildly redundant, especially if you know the definition of congruent figures (two figures are congruent if and only if each side and angle of one figure have a corresponding congruent part in the other figure), but sadly incorrect.
  • Many place names and geographical features have redundant names such as:
    • Mount Fuji (hill hill)
      • Uh, no. "Mt. Fuji-san," which I've heard, would be redundant. "Fuji" means "abundant man" or many other possible hypothetical meanings listed on The Other Wiki here
      • In Japan, some geographic names are bilingually redundant when translated into English. "Hii-gawa river" ("Hii river river").
      • Used in English also: "Tsunami Wave" = harbor wave wave.
    • River Tyne (river river)
    • River Ouse (river river)
    • Paraguay River (river river river)
    • Sahara Desert (desert desert)
    • Gobi Desert (desert desert)
    • Torpenhow Hill (hill hill hill hill)
  • In Spain, network TCM is split on TCM and TCM Clásico, the difference being the latter plays black and white movies and the former color ones. "Clásico" means "Classic", so the network's full name becomes Turner Classic Movies.... Classic. (No Network Decay here, either).
  • Prince George's County, Maryland, USA, which is home to one of the campuses of the University of Maryland and sits immediately next to Washington, DC, the capitol district of the United States, has the following municipalities: College Park, University Park, Capitol Heights, District Heights.
    • University of Maryland also has an online faction that goes by the name of University of Maryland University College.
  • "Natural flavor with other natural flavors," from a Triscuit Thin Crips box.
  • If this BBC article about funny newspaper names is to be believed, popular-with-western-Otaku English language Japanese newspaper "The Mainichi Daily" translates from Gratuitous Japanese to "The Daily Daily".
  • Seen on several nutrition facts labels: "Serving size — 1 package. Servings per container — 1."
    • Check the ingredients on a can of Domino sugar.
  • Alcoholic beverages: Honey(ed) mead. The definition of mead is "wine made from fermented honey".
  • The separate "Mild" flavor of Black and Mild cigars.
  • Individually wrapped bananas, full stop.
  • Quite a few food wrappings have some sort of "allergy note" printed on them, listing the ingredients that could trigger allergic reactions. A good idea, basically, but "Caution: contains milk" on a box of milk just seems.. wrong.
    • A glass jar with the following: "PEANUTS" "Allergy Warning: Contains Peanuts" "Ingredients: Peanuts, Salt" Gee, doyathink that jar contains, I dunno, peanuts?
    • Despite the amusement it can cause, a jar of peanuts that says "May contain nuts" isn't an example since peanuts aren't actually nuts...
  • The Electronic Entertainment Expo, shortened to E3, which is now frequently referred to as "E3 Expo".
  • Some people may refer to a SAM missile, or a surface-to-air missile missile.
    • Obviously a missile you use to shoot down surface-to-air missiles.
  • University City, Missouri, contains a sign notifying people from out of town that they are in the "City of University City" just in case they think it's a village.
    • Which is honestly begging for a college with the UMUC treatment. Just try keeping a straight face when you tell your parents you applied to the University of the City of University City University College.
  • In Guyanese English, this is used for emphasis. For example, someone may say "This wata deh cold cold", meaning the water is very cold.
  • A Math paper released in 2011 is called "Workshop on the homotopy theory of homotopy theories".
  • The city of Cartagena in Spain was, during Roman times, called Carthago Nova, Latin for New Carthage; Carthage, or rather Qart Hadasht, was Phoenician for New Town or New City. So Carthago Nova is Latin for New New Town.
  • The Milky Way Galaxy, since "Galaxy" comes from the Greek word Galaxias, meaning milky. So yes, we live in the Milky Way Milky.
  • There is a Facebook page dedicated to Facebook found here: http://www.facebook.com/facebook
  • The phrase "People's Democratic Republic" literally means People's People's Power Rule by the People".
  • In Japanese, Valentine's Day is sometimes called "Barentaindee no hi", literally "Valentine's Day Day".
  • Streets named "La Rue", at least one of which is in Davis, California. Rue is the French word for "street", so asking the location of La Rue Street is akin to asking where the "Street Street" is.
  • Ontario means "Large lake". Lake Ontario therefore means "Lake Large Lake."
  • In the aviation world, we have Air Wisconsin Airlines Corporation, which flies as US Airways Express.
  • "ATM" means "automatic teller machine." Remember that the next time someone says they have to stop at the "ATM machine."
    • And that one has already been mentioned on this page - twice! - making this page an example.
  • In the Dakota (Native American) language, mni translates to "water" and ĥaĥa[1] means "waterfall". Keep that in mind if you visit the beautiful Minnehaha Falls in Georgia... or the better known (and also lovely) ones in Minnesota.
  • The Tokyo Disney Resort has a monorail line that connects the various parks, hotels, and the nearest JR station. The line is called the Disney Resort Line in English, but in Japanese, the suffix -sen (meaning "line") is added, making the official Japanese name "Disney Resort Line-sen" or Disney Resort Line Line. The four stations on the line also qualify, since they all end with the English word "station" and the suffix -eki (meaning "station"), giving us examples like "Resort Gateway Station-eki" or Resort Gateway Station Station.
  • The progress progression bar.
  • The C++ library ACE is an acronym that stands for ADAPTIVE Computing Environment. Expanding the acronym from the first word makes ACE stand for A Dynamically Assembled Protocol Transformation, Integration, and eValuation Environment Computing Environment.
  • The city in Pakistan where bin Laden was killed is named Abbottabad, which sounds like a combination of the words for "priest" from two different languages. Technically, it was named after Sir James Abbott, and the suffix -abad means "city" or "place".
  • The AMC AMX, one of the few cars designed to compete with the Corvette during the late 60s. When spelled out, it's full name is American Motors Corporation American Motors eXperimental. After production of the AMX stopped, AMC used the AMX badge as the top of the line performance model - like "SS" is to Chevrolet. Some of their other performance cars include the American Motors Corporation Spirit American Motors eXperimental, the American Motors Corporation Javelin American Motors eXperimental, and the American Motors Corporation Concord American Motors eXperimental.
  • The literary term for an adjective that fulfills this role (e.g. a short dwarf) is a "pleonasm".
  • In the Netherlands, they have the APK-Keuring (every car has to be tested on certain points every 4 years. If it fails the test, you can't drive it until the flaws are repaired.) but... APK is short for Algemeen Periodieke Keuring(General Periodic Test). So the APK-Keuring would be the Algemeen Periodieke Keuring-Keuring (General Periodic Test-Test)
  • Pidgin languages are more accepting of double-negatives (and therefore redundancy) than other languages; therefore, a person can say "I'm not not going" (meaning "I'm not going") and it would be perfectly acceptable.
  • [Luxembourg-Findel International Airport is just one example of an airport that has such a status by being the only commercial airport within the country.
  • The first great sea expedition sponsored by the United States from 1820 to 1824 was called the US Exploring Expedition, more often shortened to the "Ex. Ex."
  • A popular purveyor of baked goods in the United States is Panera Bread. Panera is the Latin word for 'bread', making the restaurant's name "Bread Bread."
  • El Camino Road (the road road). Places that have a road with this name include:
    • Gresham, Oregon
    • Madera, California
    • Scotts Valley, California
    • Santa Clara, California
  • CNCP Telecommunications, former railway telegraph operation (replaced by Unitel and eventually Allstream). Named after the two main railways (Canadian National and Canadian Pacific), the joke was that it was "the only company so Canadian it says it twice". And apparently they're Canadian, eh?
  • How many times have you seen someone type "$50 dollars" (50 dollars dollars) or "$50 bucks" (50 dollars bucks)?
  • The SCO Group very briefly renamed itself "TSG" before settling on "the TSG Group" (presumably "The The Santa Cruz Operation Group Group").
  1. ↑ with downward diacritics on the "h"'s rather than upward
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