Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Exhibiting circumlocution; periphrastic.
Wiktionary
- adj. Characterised by circumlocution; periphrastic.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Characterised by circumlocution; periphrastic.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. roundabout and unnecessarily wordy
Examples
“The challenge for the novice was to spot the bogus stuff, but Mikey deliberately made it harder by being coy and circumlocutory about genuine matters too.”
“The tautological, circumlocutory argument of American Exceptionalism can be stated thusly: “We are on a providentially inspired mission and are guided by a ‘Higher Power’, therefore whatever our actions or policies, we cannot be in the wrong.””
“Which brings me, by a circumlocutory route to be sure, to some recent eruptions about yours truly by that petulant chihuahua Kathy Shaidle.”
“The rest of us, who find her circumlocutory speech patterns as abrasive as nails on a blackboard, are doomed to a future of listening to her butcher the English language.”
“But when I came to praise a faux professor of circumlocutory nonsense had razed the image immaculate – leaving a specious burst of wretched toadying.”
““I have the distinct pleasure …,” he began in his droll, circumlocutory, Austrian-sounding speech.”
“He tells us in his circumlocutory way that he is not a licensed architect—he dropped out during a family emergency and never completed his degree—but has designed and built many homes in the area.”
“Multimillion dollar bids, tax troubles in Japan and some circumlocutory matchmaking for celebrity supermodel Kate Moss--that's how the venturous Virgin Group boss Sir Richard Branson saw in the new year.”
“Multimillion dollar bids, tax troubles in Japan and some circumlocutory matchmaking for celebrity supermodel Kate Moss--it's only how the venturous Virgin Group boss Sir Richard Branson is seeing in the new year.”
“On Sunday, I noted First Things editor Richard John Neuhaus's circumlocutory expression of unsurprise at the forced resignation of America editor Thomas Reese: It would be fair to say that during the pontificate of John Paul II that America apparently saw itself or at least certainly read as a magazine of what some would describe as the loyal opposition.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘circumlocutory’.
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briwref's list
defalcation, macerate, beldam, nescience, ochlocracy, bibelot, estivate, spatulated, introversive, mastoidal, belletristic, objurgation and 108 more...
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Grammar, language, linguistics, rhetoric
backronym, Logogriph, logodaedaly, Acrostic, tmesis, pleonasm, sesquipedality, periphrasis, peroration, solecism, longueur, periphrastic and 15 more...
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wajo22's list
signation, genuflection, precosmic, pretemporal, precreative, pre-hexameral, preplanetary, pre-terrestrial, antemundane,
antemundane, signation, genuflection, precosmic, pretemporal, precreative, pre-hexameral, preplanetary, keeperess, trichotillomania, deerstalker, danseur and 99 more...
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GRE
acrimony, verisimilitude, tenebrious, tenebrous, dishabille, unfettered, deplorable, woebegone, credulity, naïveté, mitigate, meliorate and 475 more...
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TheLastGoodNameLeft
The Last Good Words Left
ephemera, gammon, errata, ellipses, octopi, heteronormative, polyp, intersectionality, theses, california, halfback, fullback and 555 more...
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SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL C
cabal, cache, cacophony, cadaverous, cadence, cajole, callous, callow, calumny, calvary, camaraderie, canard and 199 more...
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Thomas's Words
argus-eyed, chasmophile, extirpate, aperitif, outre, repartee, schadenfreude, insouciant, joie de vivre, callipygian, cavil, ad hominem and 147 more...
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Sat Vocabulary List
abandon, abash, abate, abjure, ablution, abnegate, abominable, aboriginal, abortive, abrade, abridge, abrogate and 2155 more...
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Greg's Words
frippet, furtive, gimcrack, indefatigable, vicissitudes, pedant, ziggurat, susurrus, sub rosa, rodomontade, interregnum, abscise and 168 more...
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Adjectival Arcana
A roster of adjectives that infrequently surface in typical conversation and writing. Many are dredged from scientific or other technical jargon or sieved from examples of disused archaic forms.
unitegmic, acaulescent, reticuloendothelial, ingressive, uniate, acanthopterygian, ossific, epiphysial, perivisceral, acœlomatous, cestoid, acælomate and 7756 more...
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Bombastic
Words related to bombastic.
bombastic, pompous, grandiloquent, magniloquent, altiloquent, fustian, orotund, euphuistic, periphrastic, circumlocutory, grandiose, turgid and 5 more...
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Words for a Twisted Mind
tortuous, meandrous, anfractuous, labyrinthine, sinuous, convoluted, helicoid, flexuous, cochlear, circuitous, serpentine, mazy and 2 more...
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Underused Gems
Good words that I should use more often.
pragmatic, erroneous, derelict, sapient, taciturn, viscous, lugubrious, ostentatious, supercillious, abjure, plethora, tenebrous and 18 more...
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antechambre's list
yes! onward with words!
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Wordy
Words meaning wordy
circumlocutory, diffusive, prolix, lavish, effusive, palaverous, verbose, diffuse, tedious, periphrastic
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GRE Reading Prep
Words found in my GRE reading prep.
paternalistic, circumlocutory, magnanimous, probity, efflorescence, aphorism
Tweets
Looking for tweets for circumlocutory.

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