Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Tediously prolonged; wordy: editing a prolix manuscript.
- adj. Tending to speak or write at excessive length. See Synonyms at wordy.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Long; extended.
- Of long duration.
- Long and wordy; extending to a great length; diffuse: as, a prolix oration or sermon.
- Indulging in lengthy discourse; discussing at great length; tedious: as, a prolix speaker or writer.
- Synonyms Long, lengthy, wordy, long-winded, spun out, prolonged.
- Tiresome, wearisome.
Wiktionary
- adj. Tediously lengthy.
- adj. Tending to use large or obscure words, which few understand.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Extending to a great length; unnecessarily long; minute in narration or argument; excessively particular in detail; -- rarely used except with reference to discourse written or spoken
- adj. Indulging in protracted discourse; tedious; wearisome; -- applied to a speaker or writer.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. tediously prolonged or tending to speak or write at great length
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old French prolixe, from Latin prōlixus, poured forth, extended.
Examples
“Thus "the beadle whipped the beggar," in prolix language might be expressed, the beadle with a whip struck in time past the beggar.”
“As a teacher of college English, I love the way you use the words "prolix" and "occlude".”
“Its narrative drags along and itsnarrator's language is leaden and unnecessarily prolix to theextent thatI mostly had to force myself to finish the book.”
“In fact, the distances she needs to bridge are far greater than Orwell's – Wigan miners weren't to old Etonians as hill tribes are to metropolitan Indians – and her writing is more prolix and melodramatic.”
The Guardian: Arundhati Roy: India's bold and brilliant daughter
“Subsequent to the allegations of research misconduct, his responses have been prolix, confusing, evasive and occasionally contradictory.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » A New Book Coming Soon from Michael Bellesiles
“With more than 50 million Larsson books sold world-wide, publishers scrambled to anoint his literary heir—preferably a political and prolix Scandinavian.”
“Will Self indulged in a prolix exchange on the subject of branding; Mark Dolan of Balls of Steel hosted a chat show; and comedian Adam Riches challenged the crowd to Swingball.”
The Guardian: The art of banter: 'It's like a boxing match. It can be bruising'
“There was no sporting reference in that primitive debutant issue of 25 October 1961 – six corny homemade pages printed on yellow paper – but over the following half-century the magazine has significantly cast its wittily baleful eye over the prolix and self-important pomposities of modern professional sport and thank heaven for it.”
The Guardian: Fifty years of Private Eye's eccentric eye view of sport | Frank Keating
“For these sceptics, the voluminous literature on the subject amounts to nothing more than a prolix reply to a simple question: "What will I drink with dinner tonight?”
“Everyone hates the prolix Gaddafi, particularly Arab despots who he routinely blasts as "old women in robes," "Zionist lackeys," and "cowards and thieves.”
The Huffington Post: Eric Margolis: After Bombing Libya, What Now?
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘prolix’.
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Jesse's random
bathos, dragoman, tessellated, escutcheon, eikon, mondaine, basilisk, ciborium, rubric, machicolation, jet, defalcation and 154 more...
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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 138 more...
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High Brow
tremulous, vigorous, unction, coadjutor, dotage, mirth, obtuseness, torpid, talisman, infirm, score, subsistence and 49 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 414 more...
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Lyngwistix
semantic, semiotic, linguistic, etc.
lexeme, sonorant, prosody, monophthong, portmanteau, dithyramb, inflection, deixis, mondegreen, screed, persiflage, polysemy and 27 more...
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Vocab
goat rodeo, fardel, quotidian, deportment, opprobrium, deracinated, inculcate, desultory, orotund, chivvy, diktat, casuistry and 24 more...
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Latin
exempli gratia, deus ex machina, prolix, sisyphean, minatory, empyrean, cicatrix, demulcent, effulgence, emulsion, garum, ablative and 15 more...
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Not quite love
prolix, pleonastic, senescence, autochthonous, loup, pronk, onomatopoeia, magisterial, rixatrix, esurient, blowsabella, crapulence and 57 more...
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Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace's gargantuan novel.
debauch, asphyxiate, benighted, imprimatur, nonplussed, kismet, comme-il-faut, prolix, dipsomaniacal, nadir
lweber5@scf.edu Dictionary.com, •All the cases give lengthy extracts from the judgments which, at first sight, may appear to be somewhat prolix.
Nov 5, 2010
apophenia34 "prose too prolix" Jul 12, 2009
bilby homophonicmountebankantonym. Oct 10, 2008
chained_bear To me, it sounds like prolific, which isn't its opposite and in fact helps me remember what it means! But do you mean contronym? (I don't think that's quite right either.)
Also, thanks, WeirdNet, for #4. That cleared it all up for me. Oct 10, 2008
shevek This word sounds like is opposite. What sort of -nym is that? Oct 10, 2008
chained_bear "From the enormously prolix yet concordant testimony of the released prisoners it became apparent that she was the consort of a much more formidable ship..."
--Patrick O'Brian, The Letter of Marque, 71 Feb 29, 2008
seanmeade sounds like logorrhea to me... Apr 22, 2007