Criteria or Criterion?

This is one of my hobby horses. Second panel

• Criterion is singular
• Criteria is plural

She should have said “criterion.”

At least I never hear anyone say “criterions.” Harrumph.

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Good writing is concise. That means you got rid of extra words but didn’t get rid of too many words. (Getting rid of too many words is being terse.) Okay, we have a couple synonyms here that involve not being concise. Definitions after the comics.

• Redundancy—needless repetition; “do it over again.”
• Pleonasm—unnecessary words; “on a daily basis” instead of “daily.”
• Tautology—the same thing twice; “he was prepared and ready.”

I’ll let you decide which of these are in the comics.

Well, rule of thumb, that is. A recommendation, really. Third panel. He stated the rule a bit more strongly than I do.

My rule is that your writing is generally better if you can think of a good verb and dispense with the adverb. Unless your emphasis is on the adverb, maybe.

…about a week ago. But hey, repetition is the mother of learning, right?

Besides, he gives the same definition that I did, so I must be right, right?

And words that sound the same but have different meanings are homonyms, right? Rite?

At least I’ve never heard the singular…

A commenter brought up the same question for linguini, tortellini, and rotini.

Any Italians (or maybe chefs) out there who know the plurals of these?