When was the last time you entered your PIN number (personal identification number number) into the ATM machine (automatic teller machine machine)? Or longed for a perfect utopia?

We use unnecessary words all the time, which often makes our written and spoken language a disorganized mess. That’s why Richard Kallan wants to help us communicate better. A communications professor at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, Kallan has worked with students for years to encourage them to recognize repetitive redundancies.

"I started collecting tautologies – word combinations whose modifying language repeats the meaning of the word modified – as a way to introduce students to the problem of wordiness and to motivate them to write more concisely," Kallan says. "By using humor, I was able to illustrate the silliness of these common redundancies. And the more irreverent I became, the easier it was to drive home my point with students of all backgrounds."

Now he's collected them in a book, Armed Gunmen, True Facts, and Other Ridiculous Nonsense. Here are some of Kallan's examples:

Armed gunman: When you need to distinguish between two gunmen, one of whom is missing a couple of limbs.

Black crow: The outcast in those large albino flocks.

Clinging vine: A needy variety of vine usually in a co-dependent relationship with a trellis.

Extreme fanatic: One repulsed by moderate fanaticism.

Hot water heater: Stolen merchandise.

Monetary fine: When you want to ensure that payment isn't made with three chickens and a goat.

Ridiculous nonsense: Nonsense unencumbered by thoughtful analysis.

Soft whisper: A popular alternative to the screaming whisper.

Wealthy millionaire: Like really, really rich.

Always on the lookout for more tautologies, Kallan invites visitors to his website to share their favorite examples. At some point in the future, he will post the best submissions. If you can’t wait until then, you might want to hurry quickly to develop your own.