Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Marked by a ready flow of speech; fluent.
- adj. Turning easily on an axis; rotating.
- adj. Botany Twining or twisting: a voluble vine.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Formed so as to roll with ease, or to be easily turned or set in motion; apt to roll; rolling; rotating; revolving.
- Characterized by a great flow of words or by glibness of utterance; speaking with plausible fluency: as, a voluble politician.
- Changeable; mutable.
- In botany, of a twining habit; rising spirally around a support, as the hop.
Wiktionary
- adj. Fluent or having a ready flow of speech; garrulous or loquacious; tonguey.
- adj. Expressed readily or at length and in a fluent manner.
- adj. Easily rolling or turning; having a fluid, undulating motion.
- adj. botany Twisting and turning like a vine.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Easily rolling or turning; easily set in motion; apt to roll; rotating.
- adj. Moving with ease and smoothness in uttering words; of rapid speech; nimble in speaking; glib.
- adj. obsolete Changeable; unstable; fickle.
- adj. (Bot.) Having the power or habit of turning or twining.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. marked by a ready flow of speech
Etymologies
- From Latin volūbilis ("rolling"), from volvō ("I roll"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, moving easily, from Old French, from Latin volūbilis, revolving, fluent, from volvere, to roll; see wel-2 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Extroverts are easy for introverts to understand, because extroverts spend so much of their time working out who they are in voluble, and frequently inescapable, interaction with other people.”
“With a sudden change of manner, his visitant conjured him, in voluble and impetuous terms, to comply.”
“And these wheels he called voluble, in my hearing.”
The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Book 31: Ezechiel The Challoner Revision
“Most of the people obediently returned to the church, their suddenly loosened tongues clattering in voluble excitement.”
“Oh, she has ways of showing what she wants without getting what you'd call voluble!”
“This is the first typical example of satire, the satire which is voluble, which is violent, which is indecent, but which is not malicious.”
“In their footnote the editors explain that "voluble" is being used in its original Latin sense, to mean "rolling along.”
“In their footnote the editors confine themselves to explaining that "voluble" is being used in its original Latin sense, to mean "rolling along.”
“The trees were still bare, but the little birds care not for that; they revel, and carol, and wildly tell their hopes, while the gentle, "voluble" south wind plays with the dry leaves, and the pine-trees sigh with their soul-like sounds for June.”
“Whereas his opposite number, Jim Mallinder, sat stoically in the stand last weekend, not even shouting his displeasure when Tuilagi did not receive a red card, Cockerill was excitable and voluble throughout, befitting someone whose autobiography, published in 1999, was called In Your Face.”
The Guardian: Richard Cockerill ready to make Leicester Tigers roar against Saracens
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘voluble’.
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1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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New words
new words or spelling issues
voluble, Metagrobolize, salubrious, calumny, fugacity, withdrawal, bourse, hypertrophy, leitmotif, argot, improvident, damask and 234 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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A Galimafrée of Plant Anatomy & Morph...
A hodgepodge, jumble, jambalaya, *gallimaufry, circus and tent revival of plant anatomy and morphology terms and phrases - its a big tent, and no tickets are required.
*array, collecti...naked bud, leaf blade, brochidodromous, serrate, cork cambium, rhizomatous, flower stalk, deciduous sepal, petal, whorl, nectar gland, stamen and 1348 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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phrontistery-v
from phrontistery.info
vulviform, vulvar, vulturine, vulpine, vulpicide, vulpecular, vulnerose, vulsella, vulnerary, vulnerate, vulgus, vulgo and 396 more...
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Jesse's random
bathos, dragoman, tessellated, escutcheon, eikon, mondaine, basilisk, ciborium, rubric, machicolation, jet, defalcation and 198 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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(1st_wk_150)-Dec_5_2012
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron, paradox, realm and 297 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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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...
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Words about Words
words to describe language
invective, eloquent, laconic, solecism, calque, cognate, bombastic, verbose, anthimeria, magniloquent, amphigory, morpheme and 6 more...
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man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 481 more...
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GRE 1100
drudgery, implore, hapless, nuance, wrest, incipient, inadvertent, tremulous, bristle, euphemism, disdain, pugnacious and 346 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for voluble.
thenike5 adj. Talkative May 21, 2009
padawan voluble: of fluent speech.
voluble: inconstant. Jan 9, 2008