commonplace

adj

1. Ordinary; not having any remarkable characteristics.

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

   “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.”

   “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.”

   “Commonplace sounds had turned into threats.”

   “In the old days, hopping onto the platform from a not-yet-stopped train was a commonplace stunt for daily commuters in a hurry.”

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A platitude or cliché.

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

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

2. (countable, uncountable)Something that is ordinary; something commonly done or occurring.

   “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.”

   “"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.[…]"”

   “And, placed discreetly among these commonplaces, a few pieces of genuine quality, bizarrely distinguished by craftsmanship from the vulgar products of the machine.”

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

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

3. (countable, uncountable)A memorandum; something to be frequently consulted or referred to.

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

4. (countable, uncountable)A commonplace book.

verb

1. (transitive)To make a commonplace book.
2. (transitive)To enter in a commonplace book, or to reduce to general heads.

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

3. (intransitive, obsolete)To utter commonplaces; to indulge in platitudes.

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

   “c. January 1620, Francis Bacon, letter to the King For the good that comes of particular and select committees and commissions, I need not commonplace.”