Pleonasm is from the Greek for «superfluous» or «redundancy». A pleonasm is a turn of phrase containing superfluous repetitive words or phrases. They have the same meaning when they are in the text, do not have any semantic meaning and do not provide any useful or additional information. Pleonasm can be removed from a sentence without changing the meaning.

Examples of pleonisms

Words that have the same meaning in spoken and written texts should be avoided. Striking examples of such excesses are:

«There are a hundred souls in the corridor» — the word «soul» and «person» have the same meaning. Therefore, the word «soul» should be removed.
«Various all kinds of characters could have appeared in this society» — the words «all kinds» and «various» are stand-ins. One of them should be removed.
«Our team is forced to retreat backwards» — the word «retreat» implies movement backwards. Therefore «backwards» is redundant in the sentence.
«Here comes the month of May» — May is the month. The phrase «the month of May» is a tautology.
«He grinned and squinted his eyes» — the word «his» is superfluous, because you can’t squint someone else’s eyes.
«We cherish every second of time» — from the meaning of the phrase it is clear that a second is time. Therefore, the word «time» can be removed.
«Check out our price list» — you can’t offer «price list» because it’s a tautology. Offer only «prices» or only «price list».
«He showed us the true truth» — the truth cannot be untrue. Because the truth is the truth. It is correct to say, «He has shown us the truth» or «He has shown us the truth».
«Raindrops falling down on the pavement» — «down» is not the right word, the pavement is already down there.