circumlocution
noun
a roundabout or indirect way of speaking; the use of more words than necessary to express an idea.
circumlocutory
-
a word derived from
circumlocution.
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.
“You know,” I thought to myself during one of the many circumlocutory and not-particularly-funny sequences in Life After Beth, “this is probably some sort of metaphor about the universal desire to retain one’s youth.”
From The Guardian ● Aug. 14, 2014
Isn't it astonishing, for example, how, once elected, MPs continue the daft traditions of jeering, guffawing and addressing their colleagues by ridiculous circumlocutory terms such as "the right honourable member"?
From The Guardian ● Jul. 10, 2013
The German language, famed for its sprawling compound nouns, has lost its most circumlocutory term.
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2013
This, in the party's circumlocutory "Aesopian" language, was known as "colonizing."
From Time Magazine Archive
Herbert has a circumlocutory manner over the phone which irritates me.
From Sight Unseen by Mary Roberts Rinehart
