Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The use of unnecessarily wordy and indirect language.
- n. Evasion in speech or writing.
- n. A roundabout expression.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A roundabout way of speaking; an indirect mode of statement; particularly, a studied indirectness or evasiveness of language in speaking or writing.
Wiktionary
- n. A roundabout or indirect way of speaking; the use of more words than necessary to express an idea.
- n. A roundabout expression. See also euphemism
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The use of many words to express an idea that might be expressed by few; indirect or roundabout language; a periphrase.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a style that involves indirect ways of expressing things
- n. an indirect way of expressing something
Etymologies
- Middle English circumlocucioun, from Latin circumlocūtiō, circumlocūtiōn-, from circumlocūtus, past participle of circumloquī : circum-, circum- + loquī, to speak; see tolkw- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It comes to the same thing, no doubt, but the circumlocution is significant.”
“Another unnecessary use of words and phrases is that which is termed circumlocution, a going around the bush when there is no occasion for it, -- save to fill space.”
“His circumlocution was a suave way of stating that he had done all that could be expected of a neighbor and benevolent friend, and that the ordinary relation of broker and customer ought now be established.”
“I was a rich heiress -- I had, I believe, a hundred thousand pounds, or more, and twice as many caprices: I was handsome and witty -- or, to speak with that kind of circumlocution which is called humility, the world, the partial world, thought me a beauty and a bel-esprit.”
“I was a rich heiress – I had, I believe, a hundred thousand pounds, or more, and twice as many caprices: I was handsome and witty – or, to speak with that kind of circumlocution which is called humility, the world, the partial world, thought me a beauty and a bel-esprit.”
““Partial” birth and post-birth abortions are, de facto, equivalent to infanticide, to suggest otherwise or to elide that fact via circumlocution or other semantic finessing is precisely that, evasion.”
“Some words get translated using circumlocution: a scanner (or scanner in Italian), as in a flatbed scanner, is an apparatus opticus et electronicus ad legendam imaginem: an optical and electronic device for reading images.”
The Vatican’s Dictionary of Recent Latinity « The Half-Baked Maker
“All along she has been, notwithstanding the weaselly circumlocution 'cleared by the Commons Authorities', effectively looting the public purse to maintain her family home.”
“The present shiftiness, circumlocution and evasion is doing the party nothing but harm.”
“Whilst Ronspeak comes with a certain level of corporate cliche, and its use of prosaic circumlocution can be irritating to some, the scale of Ron's achievement in the most competitive business in the world, bestows upon his utterances a sense of weight and solemnity, perhaps in the same way that the Higgs field purportedly bestows mass upon electrons and quarks.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘circumlocution’.
-
Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
-
GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
-
From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
-
EN - eloquence in public speaking
Key words from "The Training of a Public Speaker" by Grenville Kleiser (New York and London, 1920)
beget, imago, approbation, orator, peroration, Cicero, eloquence, elocution, rhetoric, premeditate, plead, Isocrates and 264 more...
-
Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
-
Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 567 more...
-
Its a Stretch
pandiculation, persiflage, quixotic, abjure, non sequitur, ouevre, addlepated, shibboleth, bloviate, mundicidious, illaqueate, frigorific and 13 more...
-
Linguistic Terms
Words that (mostly) only linguists know.
arpabet, protologism, diacritic, macron, macaronic, capitonym, grapheme, boustrophedon, allograph, analphabetic, idiomatic, portmanteau and 40 more...
-
circum-get around too
circumboreal, circumspective, circumvent, circumferential, circumlittoral, circumflex, circumfluence, circumvolve, circumvest, circumcise, circumfer, circumjacence and 12 more...
-
communication words
concise, ethos, cohesive, redundant, circumlocution, logos, pathos, rhetoric, articulate, verbose, taciturn, translate and 4 more...
-
big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6689 more...
-
SAT words
abase, abate, abet, abject, abjure, abrogate, abscond, abstruse, accolade, accommodating, accost, accretion and 202 more...
-
Wordplayer's Wonderful Words
chaparral, grotesque, knork, newsmonger, thitherwards, fackeltanz, kakistocracy, sforzando, compendium, frump, inquere, phosphene and 100 more...
-
GRE Words
abjure, unswear, state, rescission, indemnification, ab, reny, abnegate, vitiated, vitiate, adumbrated, abash and 378 more...
-
Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for circumlocution.

oreboredo It appears described- graphically, and sarcastically- as an indispensable part of the British government bureaucracy in Charles Dickens's Little Dorrit, Ch.X,"Whatever was required to be done, the Circumlocution Office was beforehand with all the public departments in the art of perceiving- HOW NOT TO DO IT." Jun 29, 2009
soden From Richard Dawkin's recent article about evolution: "Yet the philosophy that imposes such scruples on science has no basis for absolving everyday facts from the same circumlocution." Feb 17, 2009
foxyconcordgrape the definition of this word is about the word itself, "an expressive style that uses excessive or empty words" Nov 14, 2008
dewiclark29 this is befitting for political debates.
a roundabout or indirect way of speaking; the use of more words than necessary to express an idea. Oct 10, 2008
super-logos It's classic beating around the bush. Geekmum, it one of my forever and ever faves. Aug 8, 2008
mialuthien See periphrasis. Jul 22, 2008
geekmum Circumlocution is one of my favorite words because... well... I love words. Why use one lonely word when you can have a word party? While the rest of the world casts a frown on redundancy, I shall instead celebrate it. The more the merrier, I say. (And I believe I might be in good company here.) Jan 1, 2008
oroboros Euphemism is a kind of cousin-word, it strikes me... Apr 13, 2007