circumlocutory

adjective

Definition of circumlocutorynext
as in rambling
using or containing more words than necessary to express an idea the studio's statement that "the film's earnings did not live up to expectations" was a circumlocutory admission that the movie was a flop

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for circumlocutory
  1. rambling
  2. prolix
  3. talkative
  4. verbose
  5. exaggerated
  6. circuitous
  7. wordy
Adjective
  • In the early morning hours of Dec. 26, 1996, Patsy Ramsey called 911 to report her 6-year-old daughter JonBenét missing, and found a rambling ransom note left inside their Boulder, Colorado, home.
    — Erin Moriarty, CBS News, 20 Dec. 2024
  • His statement came a day after the release of the Netflix series, which takes viewers back to the morning after Christmas 28 years ago, when JonBenét’s mother called 911 to report finding a rambling ransom note and her daughter missing.
    — Elizabeth Chuck, NBC News, 3 Dec. 2024
Definition of rambling
Adjective
  • Words, including those of artists themselves—as prolix in their way as critics, curators, and historians—can serve vision but can also deflect from it.
    — Barry Schwabsky, ARTnews.com, 3 Sep. 2019
  • In 1949, a young American artist named Ray Johnson left Black Mountain College near Asheville, N.C., moved to New York City and began to explore his prolix talents, both visual and verbal.
    — Roberta Smith, New York Times, 30 May 2024
Definition of prolix
Adjective
  • As Shrek sets out with his talkative sidekick Donkey, the adventure quickly evolves from a simple quest to a journey of self-discovery, unexpected relationships and a lot of hilarity along the way.
    — Jane LaCroix, People.com, 29 Mar. 2025
  • Put two confident and talkative teen-agers on the court against each other, and the mics will catch some quips, and that’s what the viewers got with Waters & Patriquin trading winners and barbs all afternoon.
    — Todd Boss, Forbes, 17 Mar. 2025
Definition of talkative
Adjective
  • The lawmaker said that the usable speech only came after four or five prompts that generated unusable material, either too verbose or oddly phrased, an illustration of how important the input into the AI is to the result.
    — Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 25 Jan. 2023
  • The verbose coach was at somewhat of a loss for words, opting to forgo opening remarks in his postgame press conference and instead diving right into questions.
    — Tom Green | tgreen@al.com, al, 18 Jan. 2023
Definition of verbose
Adjective
  • Please ignore the exaggerated political hyperbole and keep in mind her passion for helping others.
    — Josh Hammer, Newsweek, 20 Mar. 2025
  • This comes after Elon Musk — tapped by President Donald Trump to lead the Department of Government Efficiency — repeatedly trumpeted exaggerated claims of Social Security fraud.
    — Shahar Ziv, Forbes, 19 Mar. 2025
Definition of exaggerated
Adjective
  • Resilience is taking a much longer, more circuitous route to the moon; the Japanese lander isn't expected to reach lunar orbit until late May or early June.
    — Mike Wall, Space.com, 28 Feb. 2025
  • The water then was pumped throughout the city via a circuitous network of huge pipes, many of them buried under Greenmount Avenue and York Road.
    — Jacques Kelly, Baltimore Sun, 8 Feb. 2025
Definition of circuitous
Adjective
  • Payton has said, both with Nix and Russell Wilson before, that the main point of the band is to shorten some of the wordiest play calls.
    — Parker Gabriel, The Denver Post, 4 Mar. 2025
  • A week after the Succession alum made a throwaway joke about a certain someone's wordy speeches, Adrien Brody broke the record for longest Oscars acceptance speech.
    — EW.com, EW.com, 3 Mar. 2025
Definition of wordy
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

circumlocution
circumlocutory
circumnavigate
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Circumlocutory.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/circumlocutory. Accessed 3 Apr. 2025.

Copy Citation

Share

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)

The Difference Between 'i.e.' and 'e.g.'

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Words You Always Have to Look Up

Democracy or Republic: What's the difference?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

What do SCOTUS, POTUS, and FLOTUS mean?

Top 10 Sophisticated Insults

More Words with Remarkable Origins

Terroir, Oenophile, & Magnum: Ten Words About Wine

8 Words for Lesser-Known Musical Instruments
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)

What do SCOTUS, POTUS, and FLOTUS mean?

Top 10 Sophisticated Insults
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Word Game Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
burrowing owl athene cunicularia tilts its head outside its burrow on marco island florida
Guess the Curious Origins of These Everyday Words Oh, that’s where that comes from…
See All