PLATITUDE noun (plat-I-tood)

noun
1. a flat, dull, or trite remark, especially one uttered as if it were fresh or profound.
2. the quality or state of being flat, dull, or trite: the platitude of most political oratory.

Quotes

One of the most common platitudes we heard was that “words failed.” But words were not failing Teri and me at all.... [We] had plenty of language with which to talk to each other about the horror of what was happening, and talk we did.
--*Aleksandar Hemon,*"The Aquarium," The New Yorker, June 13 & 20, 2011

... he took refuge in the comforting platitude that the first six months were always the most difficult in marriage. "After that I suppose we shall have pretty nearly finished rubbing off each other's angles," he reflected.
--*Edith Wharton,*The Age of Innocence, 1920


Origin

Platitude came to English from the French term literally meaning “flatness.” It entered English in the early 1800s.