Word of the Day

: March 18, 2010

magniloquent

adjective mag-NIL-uh-kwunt

What It Means

: speaking in or characterized by a high-flown often bombastic style or manner

magniloquent in Context

The actor delivered a magniloquent monologue, peppered with metaphors and obscure words.

Did You Know?

"Magnus" means "great" in Latin; "loqui" is a Latin verb meaning "to speak." Combine the two and you get "magniloquus," the Latin predecessor of "magniloquent." English speakers started using "magniloquent" in the 1600s -- even though we’d had its synonym "grandiloquent" since the 1500s. ("Grandiloquent" comes from Latin "grandiloquus," which combines "loqui" and "grandis," another word for "great" in Latin.) Today, these synonyms continue to exist side by side and to be used interchangeably, though "grandiloquent" is the more common of the two.