Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Pompous or bombastic speech or expression.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The condition or quality of being grandiloquent; lofty speech or expression; bombast.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The use of lofty words or phrases; bombast; -- usually in a bad sense.
WordNet 3.0
- n. high-flown style; excessive use of verbal ornamentation
Etymologies
- From grandiloquent, from Latin grandiloquus : grandis, great + loquī, to speak; see tolkw- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Thus, to dismiss writer-director Darren Aronofsky's hyper-ambitious third feature The Fountain - a heady fusion of science fiction, metaphysics and a melodramatic quest for immortality both romantic and spiritual - for simply believing in its own sentimental grandiloquence is to deny one of the most exquisite and strangely moving trips to the multiplex this year.”
“It's the economy, stupid, which reflects the government close association with the "grandiloquence" of Britain's economic performance in the past few years.”
“The source of Mr. Fortuna's power in the film resides in his lithe gait and the sly air of grandiloquence with which Cesar hunts down his man.”
“The article is thus meaningless grandiloquence when it comes to the courts.”
The Huffington Post: Iris Erlingsdottir: "Free Speech" Not So Free
“Enter Kekhman, then 39, a multi-millionaire fruit importer who described himself , with Freudian grandiloquence, as "the Emperor of the Banana".”
The Guardian: Who's pulling the strings in Russia's ballet revolution?
“Or consider the scene in which the author and his wife fall for that lovely house with the big mortgage: "We picked up one corner of the rug and gasped with pleasure at the grandiloquence of the hardwood floors.”
“However, Evie's mother sounds a little too much like her daughter, and this lack of distinctiveness can be levelled at most of the voices: they share a slightly fusty grandiloquence at times redolent of a 19th-century novel.”
“Her books capture the peculiar grandiloquence of children's speech; the ornate sentences, stippled with adverbs like raisins in a cake.”
“But in the course of the debate, several of them managed to express, amidst a sea of bubbling and pompous grandiloquence, their lack of knowledge on various subjects, especially on the one they repeatedly stated is the most important job of the next Commander In Chief--National Security.”
The Huffington Post: Gabriel Lerner: Gingrich Outflanks Obama From The Left
“It's no longer the dark arts of grandiloquence that obscure our politicians' thinking.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘grandiloquence’.
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Words which would do well to assimilate into my...
necronym, paronym, oronym, blandiloquence, grandiloquence, gaudiloquent, fecund, anagogy, horrisonous, homosporous, extraneous, mephistophelian and 1 more...
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Verbosities
For when eloquence is anything but brief.
blandiloquence, grandiloquence, acquiesce, defenestration, exonerate, gigmanity, ectomorphic, convivial, exoptation
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Gateway Words
Words that doomed you to a life of logolepsy. Just one won’t hurt you. Try it; all the cool kids are doing it. First one’s on me.
(If you’ve a good story, don’t forget to drop a com...
oroboros Don't forget grandilloquence! Also see blandiloquence. May 2, 2007
kenspeckle not to be confused with graviloquence or gaudiloquent Feb 7, 2007