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
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
noun
The use of more words than are necessary to express the idea; a roundabout, or indirect, way of speaking; circumlocution.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, rhetoric, uncountable
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To express by periphrase or circumlocution.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To use circumlocution.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
From Latin periphrasis from Ancient Greek περίφρασις (períphrasis), from περιφράζομαι (periphrázomai, “to consider all sides of an issue”), from περί (perí, “around”) + φράζω (phrázō, “to show, point out”). See phrase.
