Amphigory
//ˈæm.fɪ.ɡɔ.ɹi// noun
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A nonsense verse; a rigmarole, which is meaningless despite possibly appearing to have meaning.
"There is always a danger that a poet, in search after the infinitely ingenious, may lapse into amphigory, into sheer absurdity and triviality, which Cowper, in spite of his elegant lightness, does not always escape."
- 2 nonsensical writing (usually verse) wordnet
Example
More examples"There is always a danger that a poet, in search after the infinitely ingenious, may lapse into amphigory, into sheer absurdity and triviality, which Cowper, in spite of his elegant lightness, does not always escape."
Etymology
From French amphigouri, of uncertain derivation; perhaps from Ancient Greek ἀμφί (amphí) + γῦρος (gûros, “circle”) or -αγορία (-agoría, “speech”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.