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Cliché

clicheon by default (info)Japanese / English

A worn phrase such as "at the end of the day" or "low-hanging fruit"

Example

How to fix

Say what the phrase stood for ("low-hanging fruit" → name the easy tasks).

Why it matters

"At the end of the day", "low-hanging fruit" and "move the needle" are figures of speech worn down to filler. The reader skims the familiar shape and learns nothing about this document. The phrases are listed in the lexicon, each with what to write instead.

What it does not flag

Only the phrases on chaff's list are checked, in body sentences; headings are not read. Phrases another rule reads (いかがでしたか in closing-cliche, "game-changer" in ai-tell, "needless to say" in empty-intensifier) are not on it. In Japanese, 結論から言うと is left out because human articles use it as often, and 〜まとめ and 〜な件 because ordinary sentences share them (まとめました, 重要な件). Literature and speech transcripts are not checked. A phrase that is only named as a term ("when saying raising the bar", the phrase "low-hanging fruit", 「徹底解説」という言い方) is not reported.

Turning it off or relaxing it

This page is built from the rule's definition file:packages/chaff/rules/cliche.yaml