as in rambling
using or containing more words than necessary to express an idea
the studio's statement that "the film's earnings did not live up to expectations" was a circumlocutory admission that the movie was a flop
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for circumlocutory
Adjective
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Refine your key points to be clear and concise—no rambling monologues.—
Expert Panel®,
Forbes.com,
15 Apr. 2025 -
In the early morning hours of Dec. 26, 1996, Patsy Ramsey called 911 to report her 6-year-old daughter JonBenét missing, and found a rambling ransom note left inside their Boulder, Colorado, home.—
Erin Moriarty,
CBS News,
20 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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Words, including those of artists themselves—as prolix in their way as critics, curators, and historians—can serve vision but can also deflect from it.—
Barry Schwabsky,
ARTnews.com,
3 Sep. 2019
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In 1949, a young American artist named Ray Johnson left Black Mountain College near Asheville, N.C., moved to New York City and began to explore his prolix talents, both visual and verbal.—
Roberta Smith,
New York Times,
30 May 2024
Adjective
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Emily soon bonds with the talkative rebel, and their connection eventually blossoms into a full-on romance.—
James Mercadante,
EW.com,
8 June 2025
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They are not injured, just very loud and talkative.—
Maria Azzurra Volpe,
MSNBC Newsweek,
18 June 2025
Adjective
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The lawmaker said that the usable speech only came after four or five prompts that generated unusable material, either too verbose or oddly phrased, an illustration of how important the input into the AI is to the result.—
Globe Staff,
BostonGlobe.com,
25 Jan. 2023
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The verbose coach was at somewhat of a loss for words, opting to forgo opening remarks in his postgame press conference and instead diving right into questions.—
Tom Green | [email protected],
al,
18 Jan. 2023
Adjective
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Reports of Craig Robinson's retirement from comedy have been greatly exaggerated.—
Shania Russell,
EW.com,
9 July 2025
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Skinny brows, an exaggerated cat-eye, and a rich red lip added to the maximalist Parisian glamour.—
Kara Nesvig,
Allure,
9 July 2025
Adjective
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Instead of direct routes, U.S. military deportation flights have been forced to take circuitous routes because military flights over the airspace of some countries requires more advanced notice, Isacson said.—
Daniel Gonzalez,
AZCentral.com,
3 July 2025
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This example also shows how the wheel’s evolution, much like its iconic shape, traces a circuitous path – one with no clear beginning, no end, and countless quiet revolutions along the way.—
Kai James,
The Conversation,
11 June 2025
Adjective
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Davis is a magnetic front man, and the Roadhouse Band is an intoxicatingly raucous live outfit, but the constraints of the setup suited his new material, which is suffused with listlessness and yearning, dark jokes and wordy disquisitions on desire.—
Amanda Petrusich,
New Yorker,
14 July 2025
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Getting this into English would be clunky and far too wordy to fit into Quino’s word bubbles.—
Lily Meyer,
The Dial,
20 May 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Circumlocutory.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/circumlocutory. Accessed 18 Jul. 2025.
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