What Are Redundancies?

These nuisances are superfluous words or phrases also known as pleonasms. Rather than augment writing, they slow action scenes and increase word count — without adding constructive details.

About The Quiz

This quiz, the thirty-fifth in its series, offers ten sentences containing redundancies, and ten suggested solutions.

They are edited examples from books, news media, television shows, and overheard conversations.

The Answers Are Often in the Definitions

A redundancy is like having two STOP signs when you only need one. In most cases, you should recognize the superfluous words when you scrutinize the definitions.

And maybe your muse will find story ideas among the changes and suggestions.

Can You Find Every Redundant Word or Phrase?

1. Five thousand people crossed over the border in three days.
2. The intruder ducked down and avoided the spray of bullets from the auto-defense system.
3. The unkempt woman walked forward toward the counter and smiled at the clerk.
4. The kidnappers lowered him down into the hole and then closed the hatch.
5. The street had filled up with heavy traffic, rendering it impassable for emergency vehicles.
6. The rescuers searched for days but found no live survivors.
7. The air had no scent; it was neutral.
8. The decontamination process requires three hours.
9. She nodded her head and smiled as she filled out the job application.
10. Looking forward toward the future, we don’t see any solution.

Suggested Edits

Edit #1: Five thousand people crossed over the border in three days.

cross: to go over or across

Alternate wording: Five thousand [noncitizens, soldiers, refugees, combatants, caribou] crossed the [boundary, perimeter, ditch, trench, channel] in three days.

Edit #2: The intruder ducked down and avoided the spray of bullets from the auto-defense system.

duck: to avoid something by quickly moving down

Alternate wording: The [prowler, peeping Tom, vampire] [crouched, slunk behind the curtains, climbed the wall] and [evaded, the security cameras, watched the alien undress, avoided the garlic atomizer].

Edit #3: The unkempt woman walked forward toward the counter and smiled at the clerk.

walk: to advance by steps; to move along by placing one foot in front of another

advance: to go forward

Alternate wording: The [derelict, drifter, busker, pauper] [shuffled, staggered, limped, wobbled] toward the counter and [asked for the penthouse suite, demanded to see the manager, requested that the clerk call a doctor, ordered a whiskey].

Edit #4: The kidnappers lowered him down into the hole and then closed the hatch.

lower: to move something or someone in a downward direction; to let or put down

Alternate wording: The [abductors, hijackers, terrorists, teenagers] [pushed him into the panic room, shoved him onto the floor, bound his wrists, forced him into an empty locker] and then [locked him inside, pointed an assault rifle at his head, tied a bomb to his chest, poured two gallons of maple syrup over his head].

Edit #5: The street had filled up with heavy traffic, rendering it impassable for emergency vehicles.

fill: to take up; to make something full; to put in as much as can be held; to brim; to overflow

Alternate wording: The street had filled with [parade floats, gushing water, mud, wild animals], rendering it impassable for [the motorcade, horses and wagons, bicycle messengers, the Pride parade].

Edit #6: The rescuers searched for days but found no live survivors.

survivor: a person who continues to live after an event in which others have died

Question: If no survivors were found, could the searchers be called rescuers?

Alternate wording: The [dogs, K9s, searchers, volunteers] [hunted, sniffed, scoured the woods, explored] for days but found [no one alive, only corpses, nothing but frozen bodies, only burnt husks that once were living beings].

Edit #7: The air had no scent; it was neutral.

neutral: scentless; colorless; toneless; expressionless

-less: an adjective suffix meaning without

Remember the two STOP signs? Why would readers need two statements about the air’s lack of scent?

Alternate wording: The [dead, odorless, neutral, scentless] air [was as lifeless as the land through which they walked, provided no clue as to the smoke in the distance, smothered any chance of humans finding the aliens, should have been filled with the aroma of flowers and moss].

Edit #8: The decontamination process requires three hours.

decontamination: the process of removing or neutralizing contaminants

Alternate wording: The [sanitization, purification, disinfection, fumigation] requires [bleaching and boiling, multiple filters, three germicides, relocation of occupants for at least one day].

Edit #9: She nodded her head and smiled as she filled out the job application.

nod: to make a quick downward motion of one’s head

Alternate wording: She [fidgeted and trembled, frowned and tilted her head, smirked, bragged about her qualifications] as she [handed her resume to the interviewer, tried to decipher the technical terms on the job application, imagined the interviewer sitting naked, interrupted the interviewer for the fourth time in two minutes].

Edit #10: Looking forward toward the future, we don’t see any solution.

forward: toward the future; ahead in time

Many editors would shorten the sentence even more: We don’t see any solution.

Alternate wording: We don’t [foresee, anticipate, expect] any [resolution, answers, quick fixes].

Master List of Redundancy Quizzes for Writers