1
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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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
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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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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Recent Examples of circumlocution
But in terms of its actual content, the statement was pretty thin gruel, bristling with public relations-style circumlocution and vagueness.
—
Business Columnist, Los Angeles Times, 27 Jan. 2026
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
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
Powell’s statement yesterday (September 22) is the masterpiece of its type, building upon fifteen months of this playful circumlocution, downshifting into bureaucratic blandness.
—George Calhoun, Forbes, 23 Sep. 2021
But the national crisis in policing and the response to it isn’t a matter of arid elite debate or familiar political circumlocution and compromise anymore.
—David Roth, The New Republic, 11 June 2020
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
These circumlocutions are meant to emphasize the fact that Africans traded like chattel were not, in their essence, slaves but human beings.
—Lionel Shriver, Harper's magazine, 25 Nov. 2019
Business Columnist, Los Angeles Times, 27 Jan. 2026
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
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
Powell’s statement yesterday (September 22) is the masterpiece of its type, building upon fifteen months of this playful circumlocution, downshifting into bureaucratic blandness.
—George Calhoun, Forbes, 23 Sep. 2021
But the national crisis in policing and the response to it isn’t a matter of arid elite debate or familiar political circumlocution and compromise anymore.
—David Roth, The New Republic, 11 June 2020
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
These circumlocutions are meant to emphasize the fact that Africans traded like chattel were not, in their essence, slaves but human beings.
—Lionel Shriver, Harper's magazine, 25 Nov. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for circumlocution
Noun
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The brain is also far more adept at handling things like ambiguity, subtlety, and nuance.—
Matthew S Williams,
Interesting Engineering,
5 Feb. 2026
-
What qualifies is highly subjective, but that ambiguity has overwhelmingly benefited federal officers, according to the two legal scholars.—
Max Taves,
Mercury News,
4 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Cornyn largely has stayed in Washington, mixing official Senate work with Texas campaign moments, such as a recent tour on the border, betting that repetition on TV can blunt grassroots skepticism and carry him into a runoff.—
Joseph Morton,
Dallas Morning News,
11 Feb. 2026
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The now memorable refrain came naturally, echoing the playful repetition and rhythm found in classic R&B records while staying grounded in a modern club setting.—
Malana VanTyler,
Miami Herald,
11 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Every August, Spain's population shuffles—locals flee inland cities for the coast, small-town restaurants pull down their shutters, and tourist destinations hit peak season.—
Ryan Craggs,
Condé Nast Traveler,
11 Feb. 2026
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Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on the latest shuffle.—
Andrea Guzmán,
Austin American Statesman,
11 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Today, many states stipulate that gestational surrogates have no parental rights—any equivocation on this matter would cause the country’s reproductive-tourism industry to collapse.—
Ava Kofman,
New Yorker,
9 Feb. 2026
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Americans have been roped even further into this dark, tragic story because of the president’s bizarre equivocation and emotional outbursts about it.—
Kaitlyn Tiffany,
The Atlantic,
31 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Flatulent describes inflated, pretentious writing; garrulity describes excessive talkativeness.—
Gary Gilson,
Star Tribune,
31 Oct. 2020
Noun
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This working prompt injection came only after much trial and error, explaining the verbosity and the detail in it.—
Dan Goodin,
ArsTechnica,
18 Sep. 2025
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The truth is, there is rarely a Merritt Wever or an Adrien Brody in awards speeches—extreme cases of brevity or verbosity that stun both those in the room and at home.—
Shirley Li,
The Atlantic,
15 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
The full production process included wet chemical cleaning, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), phosphorus diffusion, atomic layer deposition (ALD), laser patterning, physical vapor deposition (PVD), isolation, and screen printing.—
Bojan Stojkovski,
Interesting Engineering,
14 Feb. 2026
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These equations represent phenomena that vary across space but not time, such as the pressure of water flowing through rock, the distribution of stress on a bridge, or the diffusion of nutrients in a tumor.—
Quanta Magazine,
Quanta Magazine,
6 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Just as the limitless space of web text tempts writers to indulge their logorrhea, the blinking, ever-transmuting, cartoonish interface of web browsers prevents would-be readers from paying attention to anything for longer than about 7 seconds.—
Barton Swaim,
WSJ,
19 Sep. 2022
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Nor has Musk kept his Twitter logorrhea in check in other respects.—
Michael Hiltzik,
Los Angeles Times,
28 Apr. 2022
Cite this Entry
“Circumlocution.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/circumlocution. Accessed 17 Feb. 2026.
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