circumlocution
[sur-kuhm-loh-kyoo-shuhn]
noun
a roundabout or indirect way of speaking; the use of more words than necessary to express an idea.
a roundabout expression.
Origin of circumlocution
Synonyms for circumlocution
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Related Words for circumlocutory
ambiguous, tortuous, oblique, incidental, implied, ancillary, circuitous, backhanded, vague, collateral, roundabout, circular, rambling, meandering, loose, long, lavish, dull, waffling, complicatedExamples from the Web for circumlocutory
Historical Examples of circumlocutory
Herbert has a circumlocutory manner over the phone which irritates me.
Sight UnseenMary Roberts Rinehart
To come to the point, without any circumlocutory delay, I am a young man with aspirations far above my station in life.
Ruth HallFanny Fern
Allusions were made to it in a circumlocutory style: "The place you know—a certain street—at the bottom of the Bridges."
Sentimental Education, Volume IIGustave Flaubert
Certainly I was born under Cancer, and all my movements are circumlocutory, sideways, and crab-like.
The Caxtons, CompleteEdward Bulwer-Lytton
The practice thus forced upon one in employing a Chinese servant is useful in preventing a circumlocutory habit of speech.
circumlocution
noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
circumlocution
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
circumlocution
[(sur-kuhm-loh-kyooh-shuhn)]
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.