Adage

A popular saying or expression which conveys a shared and often repeated belief. It might be a proverb or an aphorism or a maxim, but has a sense of universal truth about it.

A more extensive list of literary terms, with quotations from fiction and non-fiction sources showing the terms in use, is included in The Right Word: A Writer’s Toolkit of Grammar, Vocabulary and Literary Terms (Bloomsbury 2021) 

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