Wednesday, March 8, 2017
CIRCUMLOCUTION
(sər · kəm · lō ’ kyü · shən)
Definition: the use of more words than necessary to express an idea; evasive speech
Example: The author’s tendency towards circumlocution made his theories difficult to assimilate. Of course, infrequently used words such as circumlocution would also make it difficult for most of us to understand his ideas.
Another Example: We sometimes resort to fluffy circumlocution, rather than speaking our truth, in an effort to avoid hurting a person’s feelings.
Synonyms: wordiness, verbiage, redundancy, verbosity, roundabout, indirectness, equivocation
Antonyms: conciseness, brevity, concision, directness, straightforwardness, candor, frankness, forthrightness