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When something is aberrant, it is unusual, not socially acceptable, or a departure from the norm.
If you describe a system or process as byzantine, it means that you are criticizing it because it is excessively complicated and difficult to understand.
Candor is the quality of being honest and open in speech or action.
A circuitous route, journey, or piece of writing is long and complicated rather than simple and direct.
Something convoluted, such as a difficult concept or procedure, is complex and takes many twists and turns.
Something that is desultory is done in a way that is unplanned, disorganized, and without direction.
When you digress while speaking or writing, you temporarily depart or stray from the central focus or topic at hand.
A piece of writing is discursive if it includes a lot of information that is not relevant to the main subject.
When people equivocate, they avoid making a clear statement; they are deliberately vague in order to avoid giving a direct answer to a question.
Errant things or people behave in a way that is unacceptable or wrong, such as a missile that travels in the wrong direction or a student who does not follow classroom rules.
A euphemism is a polite synonym or expression that people use to avoid talking directly about something that might be unpleasant or embarrassing.
When you are being evasive, you are trying to avoid trouble or not give a direct answer to a question.
When someone is being frank, they are being honest, truthful, and completely direct about something.
Grandiloquent speech is highly formal, exaggerated, and often seems both silly and hollow because it is expressly used to appear impressive and important.
If you describe a situation or process as labyrinthine, you mean that it is very complicated, involved, and difficult to understand.
An overt act is not hidden or secret but is done in an open and public way.
A patent situation is one that is wide open and unconcealed; it is both evident and obvious.
A pithy statement or piece of writing is brief but intelligent; it is also precise and to the point.
If something is redundant, it exceeds what is necessary or is needlessly wordy or repetitive.
Something that is sinuous is shaped or moves like a snake, having many smooth twists and turns that can often be highly graceful.
Something that is succinct is clearly and briefly explained without using any unnecessary words.
When you employ a tautology, you needlessly and often unintentionally repeat a similar sense of one word when using other words to describe it, such as in the redundant phrases “free gift” or “usual custom.”
To be terse in speech is to be short and to the point, often in an abrupt manner that may seem unfriendly.
Something that is tortuous, such as a piece of writing, is long and complicated with many twists and turns in direction; a tortuous argument can be deceitful because it twists or turns the truth.
Something that is unadorned is not made more attractive with ornament or decoration.
Verbiage is an excessive use of words to convey something that could be expressed using fewer words; it can also be the manner or style in which someone uses words.
Noun
circumlocution
sur-kuhm-loh-KYOO-shuhn
Context
I admire people who can state their ideas precisely without resorting to circumlocution or long-winded wordiness. Richard Feynman, the Nobel prize winning physicist, is well known for his simple explanations of physics, which do not resort to lengthy circumlocution. “Don’t say reflected acoustic wave,” Feynman would say. “Say echo.” I find that people most often use wordy circumlocution and roundabout ways of conversing if they have nothing important to say.
Quiz:Try again!
Which statement is an example of circumlocution?
“No one in this family is keeping up with their chores.”
“We are going to make some changes in this family—right now.”
“It has come to my attention that members of this family have been suffering from a wealth of free time in recent weeks.”
Circle Location Leads to Circumlocution "Because I did not want to hurt the realtor's feelings when he showed me a city house, I began a lengthy circumlocution to explain why the house's location near the city circle would be too, um, interesting, and it might make me want to go into, um, city planning, and then I might have to build a new city circle somewhere and, um, move, yes, that's right ... to a new location!"
Examples
Nobel laureate economist Robert M. Solow of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says Greenspan is not the first Fed chairman to employ circumlocution.
—
The Washington Post
Performance reviews have become part of the corporate culture. So has circumlocution. Managers are forever pulling punches, thanks to political correctness, legal jeopardy and, perhaps, the general niceness that afflicts our times.
—
The Economist
When the local newspapers had to discuss something controversial involving the Syrians, they would often refer to them with circumlocution, "a regional power," say, for fear that the men from the Beau Rivage would come and get them.
—
The Washington Post
Circumlocution is the “act of speaking around” something instead of going straight to the point, usually for the purpose of evasion or avoidance of something.
Word Theater
Are You Being Served? Sir Humphrey using some pretty serious political circumlocution!
The panel shows a small video clip of either the word in actual use or a scene that represents the meaning of a word. This not only breaks up the monotony of studying words but also provides another avenue to strengthen word meaning. Enjoy!
