These words refer to expressions or ideas that have lost freshness and meaning through over-use and consequently insult good taste by their superficiality, obviousness or banality. Trite and cliché , while firmly negative in tone, can be used in simply description or classification without the same degree of opprobrium suggested by the rest of these words. Trite is milder than cliché but more general, referring to over-used expressions, obvious ideas or a style that relies on either or both of these: a trite simile comparing her teeth to pearls; a story that is beautifully written but is concerned with the trite theme of adolescent loneliness; the standard Australia Day speech, trite in both delivery and sentiment. Cliché (or clichéd ) in contrast more often refers to expression alone: coinages such as "promotionwise" that can become cliché almost over-night. Occasionally, it goes beyond these restrictions: cliché characters that marred an otherwise good ply. In any case, the fault of over-use indicated by cliché is more serious than that suggested by trite .

Hackneyed and shopworn are the most critical of these words. Hackneyed points to expression, style and content that befit a hack writer, that is, someone hired to do routine and commercial, if not trashy, writing: the hackneyed jargon of movie-romance magazines. Extreme cheapness or vulgarity of expression is often indicated by the word, and possibly dullness and lack of any serious intent. Expressions might become trite or cliché by striving pathetically for elegance or loftiness, but hackneyed suggests low, narrow meanness undiluted by striving of any kind. Shopworn gives less opprobrium than hackneyed , but it vividly characterizes anything whose appeal and interest have worn out through over-use: shopworn political talk about a candidate’s image, his community spirits and other claptrap.

Stale and threadbare emphasize that something, now over-used, might once have been fresh or novel. Both, like shopworn, apply here metaphorically. Stale suggests comparison to perishable food, threadbare to the wearing out of cloth. Stale is unique in that it suggests a process of dating that need not result through excessive use: stale Victorianisms that are mercifully disappearing from the language. When over-use is suggested, the emphasis is on a lack of liveliness: a campaign speech that was a stale reiteration of respect for God, country and motherhood. Threadbare points to over-use that results in an expression’s ultimate meaninglessness: Threadbare metaphors like "kick over the traces" no longer have any meaning for most people. It should be pointed out in passing that, because of their metaphorical colourfulness, shopworn , stale and threadbare are themselves in danger of becoming trite through over-use.

Stock and stereotyped suggest things mass-produced, struck from a mould or deliberately made to resemble forerunners. Stock may suggest a situation in which originality is not expected or desired: stock formulas according to which television interviews are conducted. Stereotyped suggests over-simplification and fixing into an unchanging form to the point of caricature, however recognizable: the stereotyped figure of the Highlander in whisky ads. Both words can refer to an audience’s expectation of being given the comforting or the usual, or even to the desire to see or understand something according to standard patterns: the stock response when the image of a cooing baby is flashed upon the screen; stereotyped attitudes towards minority groups that persist even in the face of plain evidence to the contrary. Of the two, stereotyped is more critical and severe in this situation.