CIRCUMLOCUTION Synonyms: 60 Similar and Opposite Words

circumlocution

noun

ˌsər-kəm-lō-ˈkyü-shən

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as in ambiguity

deliberate evasion in speech rather than answering the question directly, he resorted to circumlocution, which made her suspect that he was hiding something

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as in repetition

the use of too many words to express an idea your papers have to be five pages long, but that's five pages of substance, not circumlocution

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Recent Examples of circumlocution Here, instead, she’s swayed by a dead Diana softly squeezing her hand and kindly hinting — the dead Diana is an ace at tactful circumlocution — that now is the time to show a mourning nation some emotion. —Tom Gliatto, Peoplemag, 16 Nov. 2023 By condensing Balzac’s opus to a few paragraphs, Barthelme was having a laugh not just at his predecessor’s genteel circumlocution—his tendency to describe buildings and manufacturing procedures and family trees in lavish detail—but also at the conventions of novelistic mimesis itself. —Giles Harvey, The New York Review of Books, 23 Apr. 2020 This year, House Republicans unveiled a new Conservative Climate Caucus that, in a fascinating circumlocution, sort of recognizes that fossil fuels are causing the planet to warm. —Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic, 2 Nov. 2022

Recent Examples of Synonyms for circumlocution

Noun

There’s no ambiguity, no pretense, just a lunch pail and a hard hat.

— Chris Perkins, Sun Sentinel, 26 Mar. 2025
Organizations can train their systems to tolerate more ambiguity, metabolize more change, and rebound more quickly.

— Scott Hutcheson, Forbes.com, 26 Mar. 2025