Turgid

//ˈtɜː.d͡ʒɪd// adj

adj ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Distended beyond the natural state by some internal agent, especially fluid, or expansive force.

    "I have a turgid limb."

  2. 2
    Of a river, inundated with excess water as from a flood; swollen.

    "The Jiet River lay before them, as thick and turgid as a gorged snake, its crosshatched surface reflecting the same ghastly hue that pervaded the Burning Plains."

  3. 3
    Overly complex and difficult to understand; grandiloquent; bombastic.

    "These were all basic tenets, but the principals wrote them down as if they had never heard them before—and maybe they hadn’t, or at least not for many years. Perhaps that’s why bureaucratic prose becomes so turgid, whatever the bureaucracy."

Adjective
  1. 1
    abnormally distended especially by fluids or gas wordnet
  2. 2
    ostentatiously lofty in style wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
bloatedbombasticarrogantaureateawkwardbellied

Example

More examples

"He pressed his turgid sex against the center of her womanhood."

Etymology

From Latin turgidus (“swollen, inflated”), from turgeō (“to swell”).

More for "turgid"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.