Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
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adj
Big without meaning, or high-sounding; bombastic, inflated; magniloquent.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: aureate, highfalutin
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Cotton, or cotton wool.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic, countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: fustian
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Cotton, or any soft, fibrous material, used as stuffing for garments; stuffing, padding.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic, countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
High-sounding words; language above the dignity of the occasion; a pompous or ostentatious manner of writing or speaking.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, figuratively, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: aureation, bombard phrase, fustian, grandiloquence, purple prose
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To swell or fill out; to inflate, to pad.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To use high-sounding words; to speak or write in a pompous or ostentatious manner.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
pompous or pretentious talk or writing
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: fustian, rant, claptrap, blah
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: grandiosity, magniloquence, ornateness, grandiloquence, rhetoric
History
From Old French bombace (“cotton, cotton wadding”), from Late Latin bombax (“cotton”), a variant of bombyx (“silkworm”), from Ancient Greek βόμβυξ (bómbux, “silkworm”), possibly related to Middle Persian pmbk' (“cotton”), from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to twist, wind”.
Across languages
8 source translations are retained for this English entry.
