November 3 is National Cliché Day. Many people use clichés all the time in their conversations with others. To set the record straight, a cliché is a catchphrase or Expressions used over and over with the assumption that everybody knows what it means. Nine times out of ten, most people do know what they mean.

Familiar phrases

National Cliché Day is celebrated by being mindful of the familiar phrases you hear all day long, and you can even count the ones you use yourself. Listen to the people around you no matter where you are and see how many clichés you can identify.

When you watch a movie or news on television, you are sure to hear many of them.

Clichés are like buzz words. That means if you are listening to people talk while you are in a waiting room in a doctor's office, you will more than likely hear medical clichés because that's the surrounding you will be in.

You might know some people who use clichés all the time. Dr. Phil uses them a lot on his popular television show when he talks to his guests. Judge Judy uses them when she is talking to people in her courtroom. Comedians are accustomed to using familiar expressions in almost every conversation to get their points across. The ones they use depend on their audience. They adjust their comedy routines by including what people in the audience would understand.

Now that there is an understanding of what a cliché is and who uses them, let's look at some popular ones. Some catchphrases people might use include "shop till you drop," "life begins at forty," "at the end of the day," "being thrown under the bus," and "raining cats and dogs."

There are thousands of well-known expressions that fit every occasion, and because of social media, people have come up with more expressions that did not exist years ago.

Some of the social media clichés also include abbreviations such as SMH for "shaking my head," LOL for "laughing out loud," and BFF for "best friend forever." These days, almost everyone knows that OMG means "Oh, my goodness" or "Oh, my God."

Fun time

It would be a lot of fun for friends or family members to have a contest on National Cliché Day to see how many they can collect during the day just by hearing others talk.

They can also include those they see in books, magazines, and whatever they read. Then at dinner time, they can compare the ones they have collected. There is a warning that goes along with this assignment. Once you start listening for clichés, you will begin to continue doing so long after the day is over.