orotund
Americanadjective
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(of the voice or speech) characterized by strength, fullness, richness, and clearness.
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(of a style of speaking) pompous or bombastic.
adjective
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(of the voice) resonant; booming
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(of speech or writing) bombastic; pompous
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of orotund
1785–95; contraction of Latin phrase ōre rotundō, with round mouth; see oral ( def. ), rotund ( def. )
Explanation
If the reviews of your concert describe your singing as orotund, you can pop open the champagne — your reviewers have noticed your full, rich sound. On the other hand, if you've just given a speech and the TV commentators ridicule it as orotund, moralistic, and meaningless, you might want to drop out of sight for a few weeks. You've been called out for your pompous, self-important style. Orotund comes from the Latin word ore, "mouth," and rotundo, "make round." So orotund sounds are what you make with a rounded mouth, which is good if you're singing, but pretentious if you're not.
Vocabulary lists containing orotund
100 SAT words Beginning with "O"
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Body Language: Or, Os ("Mouth")
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Long Walk to Freedom
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Its orotund prose certainly differs from the lean muscularity of the Second Inaugural or the elegiac concision of the Gettysburg Address.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 7, 2025
But the extravagance of Tudor self-aggrandizement is almost comical, and it wasn’t limited to the orotund Henry plastering his face onto biblical kings.
From Washington Post • Dec. 30, 2022
In the title story, for instance, the narrator combines the orotund diction of a robot with little comets of slang, “super nice,” “killing it,” in a way more manufactured than anything in “Tenth of December.”
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 13, 2022
The prose style in the three memoirs alters under the pressure of the changing agenda: the first time pained and urgent, the second subtler and more considered, the last orotund and outward.
From The New Yorker • Oct. 8, 2018
The father of Seneca had a school of oratory where rich Roman youths were taught to mouth in orotund and gesticulate in curves.
From Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 10 Little Journeys To The Homes Of Great Teachers by Hubbard, Elbert
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
