Using an adjective to describe something that is already intended

Is there a word that describes the case of using an adjective to describe a noun that already suggests as much?

Examples

  • the pretty model won all of the awards
  • the smart genius answered every question
  • the dangerous monster ate the man
  • the fast jet
  • the floating buoy

Some of these examples might not be the best, but I hope they give the right idea. I know they are superfluous, but I'm not trying to define the adjectives themselves, but the act of using them.


We would normally call an expression with a redundant adjective that served only to express a tautology, a pleonasm. Pleonasms are not always a bad thing, as they can add clarity or emphasis.

Note though:

A model is anyone whose body is used aesthetically, as a photographic or artistic subject, or as a background for clothes, demonstrably, or otherwise, and not necessarily pretty.

A djinn or spirit—for which genius is a synonym—may not be smart, and some quite stupid genii figure in some stories.

That monsters by several definitions, need not be dangerous.

That fast is relative, and some jets are much slower than others.

That some buoys can sink when damaged.

Hence these are not true pleonasms.


You could describe them as redundant if they're not actually needed, but sometimes redundancy and repetition can be useful to emphasise an important point and paint a fuller picture.