Verbosity

//vəˈbɒsəti// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The excess use of words, especially using more than are needed for clarity or precision. countable, rhetoric, uncountable

    "With Christie's words about "all-talk-no-action" in mind, notice that Obama and his two secretaries of state, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, as well as his vice president, Joe Biden, were all senators, the last two serving for two or three decades, respectively. Not forgetting the ill-fated secretary of defense, Senator Chuck Hagel. Their capacity for talking so much and saying so little is astonishing. Their verbosity is unpalatable."

  2. 2
    an expressive style that uses excessive or empty words wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
verbosenessverbosenesslong-windednessprolixitywordinessambages

Example

More examples

"He was a very kind man, but his verbosity was exasperating."

Etymology

From Middle French verbosité, from Late Latin verbōsitās. By surface analysis, verbose + -ity.

Related phrases

long windedness

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