redundancywhether

Redundancywhether is a coined term used in linguistic and editing discussions to describe a specific kind of pleonastic redundancy involving the word whether and its common paired form or not. The concept centers on the tendency to state both branches of a conditional or potential outcome, such as by attaching or not to whether, yielding phrases that may be superfluous in careful prose.

In practice, redundancywhether often appears in phrases like whether or not a decision will be made, or whether or not someone will attend. In many contexts, removing the or not clause does not change the essential meaning: It remains a question of the outcome or possibility. Editors and style guides typically flag these constructions as potential redundancy and may prefer streamlined versions such as whether the decision will be made or whether the person will attend.

The term redundancywhether is not widely established in formal linguistics; it functions more as a descriptive label used by some writers to discuss a recurring editing issue. It sits alongside broader concepts of tautology and pleonasm, where additional words add little substantive content. The utility of recognizing redundancywhether lies in clarity and economy of language, urging writers to choose whether constructions that convey alternatives without unnecessary qualifiers.

See also: pleonasm, tautology, redundancy, style guides, editing practices.