Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A mild, indirect, or vague term for one that is considered harsh, blunt, or offensive.
  • noun The use of such terms.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In rhetoric, the use of a mild, delicate, or indirect word or expression in place of a plainer and more accurate one, which by reason of its meaning or its associations or suggestions might be offensive, unpleasant, or embarrassing.
  • noun A word or expression thus substituted: as, to employ a euphemism.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Rhet.) A figure in which a harsh or indelicate word or expression is softened; a way of describing an offensive thing by an inoffensive expression; a mild name for something disagreeable.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable The use of a word or phrase to replace another with one that is considered less offensive, blunt or vulgar than the word or phrase it replaces.
  • noun countable A word or phrase that is used to replace another in this way.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an inoffensive or indirect expression that is substituted for one that is considered offensive or too harsh

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek euphēmismos, from euphēmizein, to use auspicious words, from euphēmiā, use of auspicious words : eu-, eu- + phēmē, speech; see bhā- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Recorded since 1656; from Ancient Greek εὐφημισμός (euphēmismos), from εὐφημίζω (euphēmizō), from εὔφημος (euphēmos, "uttering sound of good omen, abstaining from inauspicious words"), from εὖ (eu, "well") + φήμη (phēmē, "a voice, a prophetic voice, rumor, talk"), from φάναι (phanai, "to speak, say").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word euphemism.

Examples

  • “We live in interesting times” — even if the euphemism is apocryphal, its truth value is the same.

    Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » Do As I Say, Not As I Do 2009

  • PC euphemism is an insult to everyone's intelligence and an assault on free speech, human dignity, and the English language.

    Keeping the Riff-Raff Out of Heaven nissa_amas_katoj 2009

  • Populated by a subculture comprised of wizened mechanics, poignant, heroic street urchins, crack-addicted car dwellers, Foreign Parts is a documentary about the fading Steinbeckian (to deal in euphemism) marketplace that is the Willets Point car repair strip in Queens, NY, where a cluster of garages with deep inventories of all manner of car parts from all manner of vehicle, furnish countless savvy, budget-conscious New Yorkers with daily miracles plucked from endless shelves and heaps.

    Michael Vazquez: ON THE 48TH ANNUAL NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL Michael Vazquez 2010

  • Populated by a subculture comprised of wizened mechanics, poignant, heroic street urchins, crack-addicted car dwellers, Foreign Parts is a documentary about the fading Steinbeckian (to deal in euphemism) marketplace that is the Willets Point car repair strip in Queens, NY, where a cluster of garages with deep inventories of all manner of car parts from all manner of vehicle, furnish countless savvy, budget-conscious New Yorkers with daily miracles plucked from endless shelves and heaps.

    Michael Vazquez: ON THE 48TH ANNUAL NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL Michael Vazquez 2010

  • The idea of purity tests by any euphemism is an insult to political parties.

    GOP to unveil campaign pledge after Labor Day 2010

  • Populated by a subculture comprised of wizened mechanics, poignant, heroic street urchins, crack-addicted car dwellers, Foreign Parts is a documentary about the fading Steinbeckian (to deal in euphemism) marketplace that is the Willets Point car repair strip in Queens, NY, where a cluster of garages with deep inventories of all manner of car parts from all manner of vehicle, furnish countless savvy, budget-conscious New Yorkers with daily miracles plucked from endless shelves and heaps.

    Michael Vazquez: ON THE 48TH ANNUAL NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL Michael Vazquez 2010

  • Populated by a subculture comprised of wizened mechanics, poignant, heroic street urchins, crack-addicted car dwellers, Foreign Parts is a documentary about the fading Steinbeckian (to deal in euphemism) marketplace that is the Willets Point car repair strip in Queens, NY, where a cluster of garages with deep inventories of all manner of car parts from all manner of vehicle, furnish countless savvy, budget-conscious New Yorkers with daily miracles plucked from endless shelves and heaps.

    Michael Vazquez: ON THE 48TH ANNUAL NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL Michael Vazquez 2010

  • The idea of purity tests by any euphemism is an insult to political parties.

    GOP to unveil campaign pledge after Labor Day 2010

  • The concern, stripped of euphemism, is that the evidentiary basis for many trials of Guantanamo detainees — including, in many cases, torture — would never be admissible in any court worthy of the name.

    It’s Gonna Be A Borstal Breakout | ATTACKERMAN 2008

  • (You will excuse me if, like Humbert, I dissolve into French when euphemism is required.)

    Hurricane Lolita 2005

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Circumlocution of sorts.

    April 13, 2007

  • 1656, from Gk. euphemismos "use of a favorable word in place of an inauspicious one," from euphemizein "speak with fair words," from eu- "good" + pheme "speaking," from phanai "speak" (see fame). In ancient Greece, the superstitious avoidance of words of ill-omen during religious ceremonies, or substitutions such as Eumenides "the Gracious Ones" for the Furies (see also Euxine). In Eng., a rhetorical term at first; broader sense of "choosing a less distasteful word or phrase than the one meant" is first attested 1793.

    refernce to the martyr, Euphemia

    June 9, 2009

  • J.C.Duffy's take.

    August 14, 2014

  • ‘Digital India’ cannot become a euphemism for an Internet controlled by large corporations: Rahul Gandhi

    March 1, 2016

  • best example:

    A bunch of blog-spammers and google-spoofers (the euphemism is "Search Engine Optimization" -- no doubt you've received spam offering you this "service") set up a competition to see who could become the number one Google result for the previously unused phrase "nigritude ultramarine."

    March 1, 2016

  • Hi folks! Looking for the term that describes using a spoonerism euphemism to avoid saying a profane or sacred phrase. I suspect there is a term for this, other than the awkward but accurate spoonerism euphemism. Does anybody out there know this term?

    February 23, 2018

  • Is not the spoonerism itself the euphemism? As in ,

    Q: How is the Swiss navy like a baby?

    A: Always sucking and never fails.

    I do not know that this genre has a name.

    See also spoonerism.

    February 23, 2018

  • alternaswears alterna-swears , bowdlerism ...  I have a  ████ list...

    February 24, 2018