magniloquent

American  

[mag-nil-uh-kwuhnt] / mægˈnɪl ə kwənt /

adjective

1. speaking or expressed in a lofty or grandiose style; pompous; bombastic; boastful.

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magniloquent British  

/ mæɡˈnɪləkwənt /

adjective

1. (of speech) lofty in style; grandiloquent

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Other Word Forms

• magniloquence noun
• magniloquently adverb

Etymology

Origin of magniloquent

1650–60; back formation from Latin magniloquentia elevated language, equivalent to magniloqu ( us ) speaking grandly ( magni- magni- + loqu ( ī ) to speak + -us adj. suffix) + -entia -ence

Example Sentences

Boris Johnson has long spun political gold from his magniloquent tongue, using what some linguists and observers say bombastic language, esoteric vocabulary, occasional crudity and episodes of bumbling bluster.

From Reuters • Jul. 23, 2019

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, with the Revolution succeeded by the reign of Napoleon, that meant history painting: magniloquent tableaus — battles, shipwrecks, coronations — in which myth and reality met.

From New York Times • Jan. 24, 2013

Leslie's defiantly magniloquent homages to Caravaggio and David, with pink, corn-fed flesh licked by brusque, sweaty highlights.

From Time Magazine Archive

But he does most of his work in the faded, 95-year-old governor's mansion, as magniloquent and dated as an 1845 oration, at the edge of downtown Springfield.

From Time Magazine Archive

Here is found the prose character of Shakespere which, if less magniloquent than that in verse, has a greater touch of sheer sincerity.

From A History of Elizabethan Literature by Saintsbury, George