Definition of "commonplace"

"This Mr. Tyrrel," she said, in a tone of authoritative decision, "seems after all a very ordinary sort of person, quite a commonplace man."

1824, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 7, in St. Ronan's Well

In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.

I could get hold of nothing but of some commonplace phrases, those futile phrases that give the measure of our impotence before each other's trials.

1911, Joseph Conrad, chapter 1, in Under Western Eyes

Finally he began to mutter some commonplaces which meant nothing particularly.

1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 17, in Active Service

And something angered Tamara in the way the Prince assisted in all this, out-commonplacing her friend in commonplaces with the suavest politeness.

1910, Elinor Glyn, chapter 4, in His Hour

It is odd how easily the common-places of morality or of sentiment glide off in conversation. Well, they are "exceedingly helpful," and so Lord Avonleigh found them.

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), page 137

"My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes, as we sat on either side of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence. […] "

1891 September, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of a Case of Identity”, in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, London: George Newnes, […], published 1892 October 14, page 56

The smallest commonplace of domestic life, so amiable to the healthy mind, lacerates like a blade.

1988 December 19, William Styron, “Why Primo Levi Need Not Have Died”, in The New York Times‎

Collecting data via transects is a commonplace in biology[.]

2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, page 4

Whatever, in my reading, occurs concerning this our fellow creature, I do never fail to set it down by way of common-place.

1710, Jonathan Swift, A Discourse concerning the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit

I do not apprehend any difficulty in collecting and commonplacing an universal history from the […] historians.

1711, Henry Felton, Dissertation on Reading the Classics

And something angered Tamara in the way the Prince assisted in all this, out-commonplacing her friend in commonplaces with the suavest politeness.

1910, Elinor Glyn, chapter 4, in His Hour

For the good that comes of particular and select committees and commissions, I need not commonplace.

c. January 1620, Francis Bacon, letter to the King