orotund

American  

[awr-uh-tuhnd, ohr-] / ˈɔr əˌtʌnd, ˈoʊr- /

adjective

1. (of the voice or speech) characterized by strength, fullness, richness, and clearness.

2. (of a style of speaking) pompous or bombastic.

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orotund British  

/ ˈɒrəʊˌtʌnd /

adjective

1. (of the voice) resonant; booming

2. (of speech or writing) bombastic; pompous

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Other Word Forms

• orotundity noun

Etymology

Origin of orotund

1785–95; contraction of Latin phrase ōre rotundō, with round mouth; oral ( def. ), rotund ( def. )

Example Sentences

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

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

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

The more strained our circumstances, the more manic the publicity machine, the more breathless and orotund the advance praise.

From New York Times

But now the speaker’s orotund oratory, his mannered put-downs, his pompous, practiced, often hilarious jawing will be no more.

From Washington Post