turgid
Americanadjective
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swollen; distended; tumid.
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inflated, overblown, or pompous; bombastic.
turgid language.
adjective
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swollen and distended; congested
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(of style or language) pompous and high-flown; bombastic
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of turgid
1660–70; < Latin turgidus, equivalent to turg ( ēre ) to swell + -idus -id 4
Explanation
Turgid describes something that's swollen, typically by fluids, like a turgid water balloon that's way too big to resist dropping on your friend's head. Turgid comes from the Latin word turgidus, meaning "swollen, inflated." Turgid can be used in a figurative sense to describe things that are overblown. That might remind you of some people's egos! If a famous singer wants to showcase his incredible vocal range and his love of yodeling in a single song, the result may well be turgid, something so swollen with notes and styles that it seems ready to burst.
Vocabulary lists containing turgid
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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The Great Gatsby
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Poe's Favorite Words, collected by Charles Harrington Elster
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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.
Some have waded through turgid Communist Party documents in search of subtle shifts in tone and vocabulary.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 15, 2026
Galthie recalled Gael Fickou in midfield, with locks Thibaud Flament and Emmanuel Meafou the other changes from last Saturday's turgid win over Fiji.
From Barron's • Nov. 22, 2025
Even the highlights on Match of the Day have left me thinking, 'oh this is a bit turgid'.
From BBC • Dec. 6, 2024
Mr. Dennett combined a wide range of knowledge with an easy, often playful writing style to reach a lay public, avoiding the impenetrable concepts and turgid prose of many other contemporary philosophers.
From New York Times • Apr. 19, 2024
And the prose in the memoranda of other officers was always turgid, stilted, or ambiguous.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
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.
