CIRCUMLOCUTION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does circumlocution mean? 

• CIRCUMLOCUTION (noun)
  The noun CIRCUMLOCUTION has 2 senses:

1. a style that involves indirect ways of expressing things

2. an indirect way of expressing something

  Familiarity information: CIRCUMLOCUTION used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CIRCUMLOCUTION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A style that involves indirect ways of expressing things

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

ambage; circumlocution; periphrasis

Hypernyms ("circumlocution" is a kind of...):

verboseness; verbosity (an expressive style that uses excessive or empty words)

Derivation:

circumlocutious (roundabout and unnecessarily wordy)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An indirect way of expressing something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

circumlocution; indirect expression

Hypernyms ("circumlocution" is a kind of...):

equivocation; evasion (a statement that is not literally false but that cleverly avoids an unpleasant truth)

Derivation:

circumlocutious (roundabout and unnecessarily wordy)

 Context examples 

You asked for frankness, Mr. Holmes, and I have taken you at your word, for I have now told you everything without an attempt at circumlocution or concealment.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I had made use of many circumlocutions in describing to him the nature of the several crimes for which most of our crew had been forced to fly their country.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

It put me to the pains of many circumlocutions, to give my master a right idea of what I spoke; for their language does not abound in variety of words, because their wants and passions are fewer than among us.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)