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When a person is speaking or writing in a bombastic fashion, they are very self-centered, extremely showy, and excessively proud.
Circumlocution is a way of saying or writing something that uses too many words, especially in order to avoid stating the true meaning clearly.
Something convoluted, such as a difficult concept or procedure, is complex and takes many twists and turns.
If you describe someone, usually a young woman, as demure, you mean that she is quiet, shy, and always behaves modestly.
When something is subjected to distortion, it is twisted out of shape in some way.
Someone who is dour is serious, stubborn, and unfriendly; they can also be gloomy.
An exorbitant price or fee is much higher than what it should be or what is considered reasonable.
If someone or something is flamboyant, the former is trying to show off in a way that deliberately attracts attention, and the latter is brightly colored and highly decorated.
A florid complexion is too red or flushed.
Praise, an apology, or gratitude is fulsome if it is so exaggerated and elaborate that it does not seem sincere.
Hyperbole is a way of emphasizing something that makes it sound much more impressive or much worse than it actually is.
When something is implicit, it is understood without having to say it.
If something is inordinate, it is much larger in amount or degree than is normally expected.
When you are acting in a melodramatic way, you are overreacting to something in an overly dramatic and exaggerated way.
Something meretricious seems good and useful; in fact, it’s just showy and does not have much value at all.
If you describe an action as ostentatious, you think it is an extreme and exaggerated way of impressing people.
A pithy statement or piece of writing is brief but intelligent; it is also precise and to the point.
Ponderous writing or speech is boring, highly serious, and seems very long and wordy; it definitely lacks both grace and style.
If you are pretentious, you think you are really great in some way and let everyone know about it, despite the fact that it’s not the case at all.
People who are reticent are unwilling to share information, especially about themselves, their thoughts, or their feelings.
Something that is succinct is clearly and briefly explained without using any unnecessary words.
To be terse in speech is to be short and to the point, often in an abrupt manner that may seem unfriendly.
Turgid writing or speech is excessively complicated, being filled with too many needlessly difficult words; consequently, such verbiage is boring and difficult to understand.
Something that is unadorned is not made more attractive with ornament or decoration.
If you repeat something verbatim, you use the same words that were spoken or written.
Something that is verbose, such as a speech or article, contains too many words.
Adj.
grandiloquent
gran-DIL-uh-kwuhnt
Context
Elizabeth found Edward’s invitation to the movies to be too flowery and grandiloquent. There really was no need for him to grandiloquently recite the request in rhyme, or for him to wear a top hat and speak in such a fancy way with such big words! Furthermore, his grandiloquent or overly formal expression embarrassed her since he read his poem in front of her soccer team at practice. It was only a date to the movies, after all, not a grandiloquent, impressive marriage proposal!
Quiz:Try again!
What is an example of grandiloquent speech?
My weather app says that the temperature is twenty degrees and that it may start snowing by this afternoon.
I am bafflingly bemused by this dandy day’s increasingly inclement meteorological mishaps.
I hope the weather gets better soon so we can go outside and play our soccer match.
Grandiloquent speech is highly formal, exaggerated, and often seems both silly and hollow because it is expressly used to appear impressive and important.
Grandiose Eloquence Howard was too grandiose in his attempts to sound eloquent and sophisticated; he was being grandiloquent.
Examples
They seem almost to intimidate each other, Howard being made edgy by the presence of a genuine New York Giants football hero, and Frank being slightly uneasy in the grandiloquent company of Cosell's massive vocabulary and precise grammar.
—
Sports Illustrated
Once, the most powerful House in Paris was Silverspires, the demesne of Morningstar, the first and most powerful of the Fallen. His fellow angels have only slightly less grandiloquent names, but taken together, they all give the book a sense of outsized gothic poetry.
—
NPR
Now and then we encountered a sentence, like Professor Owen's "axiom of the continuous operation of the ordained becoming of living things," which haunted us like an apparition. For, dim as our conception must needs be as to what such oracular and grandiloquent phrases might really mean, we felt confident that they presaged no good to old beliefs.
—
The Atlantic
