To a Frenchman, everything is a platitude that is not a paradox. The Bramleighs Of Bishop's Folly Charles James Lever A platitude that nobody has expressed and that nobody has acted on is a great truth. The Ghost in the White House Gerald Stanley Lee It is tolerated to-day for no other reason than that it has cornered the platitude market.
It is short for the Latin et alii ('and others'), which means and others.. For example, the phrase IBM, Microsoft, HP, et al. means IBM, Microsoft, HP and others or Carrâ¦uthers et al.- Carruthers and others.
An abbreviated form of et alia, Latin for and others.. When affixed after the name of a person, et al. indicates that additional persons are acting in the same manner, such as several plaintiffs or grantors. When et al. is used in a judgment against defendants, it means that the quoted words are applicable to all the defendants.