voluble
adjective
Did you know?
In a chapter titled “Conversation,” from her 1922 book Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home, Emily Post offers her trademark good advice for the loquacious among us: “There is a simple rule, by which if one is a voluble chatterer ... one can at least refrain from being a pest or a bore. And the rule is merely, to stop and think.” Voluble, as is clear in this context, describes someone or something (as in “voluble personality/prose/presence”) characterized by ready or rapid speech. Voluble traces back to the Latin verb volvere, meaning “to set in a circular course” or “to cause to roll.” Another volvere descendant, volume, can also be a help in remembering voluble’s meaning, not because someone described as voluble speaks at a loud volume, per se, but because they have volumes to say.
Examples of voluble in a Sentence
Sushant Singh, Foreign Affairs, 29 Apr. 2025
But perhaps none has been as voluble or persistent as Michael Roth, who has been president of Wesleyan since 2007.
—Molly Fischer, New Yorker, 3 Apr. 2025
That gig features Newsom, former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch and sports agent Doug Hendrickson in yet another podcast feedin’ the hunger of those with a bottomless appetite for the state’s voluble chief executive.
—Mark Z. Barabak, The Mercury News, 18 Mar. 2025
Here, the director of some of the most voluble of all films exalts immediate experience and rarefied perception to grand historical dimensions—Oliveira condenses a lifetime of artistic striving into infinitesimal flourishes of overwhelming power.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 26 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for voluble
Cite this Entry
“Voluble.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/voluble. Accessed 25 May. 2025.
Copy Citation
Share