Orotund
adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A voice characterized by clarity, fullness, smoothness, and strength of sound. countable, obsolete
- 2 The quality of clarity, effectiveness, and power in speech or writing. obsolete, uncountable
- 1 Of a voice: characterized by clarity, fullness, smoothness, and strength of sound; hence, of a person: having a clear, full, and strong voice, appropriate for public speaking, reading aloud, etc.
- 2 Of writing, etc.: clear, effective, powerful. broadly
- 3 Of speech or writing: bombastic, pompous. broadly, derogatory
"A series of U.N. and government officials spoke. And spoke. And spoke. Their words were grand, their sentences endless. In orotund turns of phrase—indeed, in spiraling helices of phrase; in snarled fishing lines of phrase; in endless small intestines of phrase—the speakers ingeniously explored and invented connections between qwerty, alphabetical filing, and socioeconomic advance."
- 1 (of sounds) full and rich wordnet
- 2 ostentatiously lofty in style wordnet
Example
More examples"A series of U.N. and government officials spoke. And spoke. And spoke. Their words were grand, their sentences endless. In orotund turns of phrase—indeed, in spiraling helices of phrase; in snarled fishing lines of phrase; in endless small intestines of phrase—the speakers ingeniously explored and invented connections between qwerty, alphabetical filing, and socioeconomic advance."
Etymology
PIE word *h₁óh₃s The adjective is a learned borrowing from Latin ōre rotundō (“with a round mouth; hence, clear; loud”) (whence English ore rotundo), possibly influenced by rotund (“having a curved, round, or spherical shape; (figurative) of sound: full and rich”). Ōre rotundō is composed of ōre (the ablative singular of ōs (“mouth”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁óh₃s (“mouth”)) + rotundō (the ablative singular of rotundus (“circular, round”) (possibly from rota (“wheel”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *Hreth₂- (“to run”)) + -undus (suffix forming adjectives)). The noun is derived from the adjective.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.