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
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for circumlocutory
Adjective
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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 -
His statement came a day after the release of the Netflix series, which takes viewers back to the morning after Christmas 28 years ago, when JonBenét’s mother called 911 to report finding a rambling ransom note and her daughter missing.—
Elizabeth Chuck,
NBC News,
3 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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As Shrek sets out with his talkative sidekick Donkey, the adventure quickly evolves from a simple quest to a journey of self-discovery, unexpected relationships and a lot of hilarity along the way.—
Jane LaCroix,
People.com,
29 Mar. 2025
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Put two confident and talkative teen-agers on the court against each other, and the mics will catch some quips, and that’s what the viewers got with Waters & Patriquin trading winners and barbs all afternoon.—
Todd Boss,
Forbes,
17 Mar. 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 | tgreen@al.com,
al,
18 Jan. 2023
Adjective
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The exaggerated, puppet-like character designs contribute to the game's mythic, storybook quality.—
PC Magazine,
PC Magazine,
3 Apr. 2025
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But it was also used to stop other individuals’ display behaviors—dramatic, exaggerated actions or gestures bonobos perform to assert dominance or attract attention.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
3 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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This time, even though their starting pitcher took a circuitous route to his three outs, the Padres held that lead after the entire inning had been played.—
Kevin Acee,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
7 Apr. 2025
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Waldman was hired in 2015 to translate a manuscript that had already taken a circuitous route from Grade’s typewriter to the cluttered rooms of his Bronx apartment to the limbo of probate law.—
Andrew Silow-Carroll,
Sun Sentinel,
2 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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Payton has said, both with Nix and Russell Wilson before, that the main point of the band is to shorten some of the wordiest play calls.—
Parker Gabriel,
The Denver Post,
4 Mar. 2025
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A week after the Succession alum made a throwaway joke about a certain someone's wordy speeches, Adrien Brody broke the record for longest Oscars acceptance speech.—
EW.com,
EW.com,
3 Mar. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Circumlocutory.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/circumlocutory. Accessed 13 Apr. 2025.
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