Standard Lemma guide

verbosity

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

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

Pronunciation

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.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /vəˈbɒsəti/
  • General-American: /vɚˈbɑsəti/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɒsɪti

1

noun

Meaning 1

The excess use of words, especially using more than are needed for clarity or precision.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, rhetoric, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: long-windedness, verboseness, wordiness, verbiage, prolixity

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

an expressive style that uses excessive or empty words

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: verboseness

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: expressive style, style

Narrower terms: verbiage, verbalism, prolixity, prolixness, windiness, long-windedness, wordiness, circumlocution, periphrasis, ambage, repetitiveness, repetitiousness, pleonasm

History

Etymology

From Middle French verbosité, from Late Latin verbōsitās. By surface analysis, verbose + -ity.

Across languages

Translations

26 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: многословие (mnogoslovie) — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • Chinese Mandarin: 冗句 (rǒngjù) — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • Dutch: breedsprakigheid — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • French: verbosité — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • Galician: verbosidade — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • Georgian: მრავალსიტყვიანობა (mravalsiṭq̇vianoba) — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • German: Verbosität — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • German: Weitschweifigkeit — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • Greek: πολυλογία (polylogía) — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • Greek: απεραντολογία (aperantología) — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • Hungarian: bőbeszédűség — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • Irish: foclachas — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • Italian: verbosità — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • Japanese: 冗句 (jōku) — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • Norwegian Bokmål: ordrikhet — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • Polish: rozwlekłość — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • Portuguese: verbosidade — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • Portuguese: verborragia — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • Russian: многословность (mnogoslovnostʹ) — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • Serbo-Croatian: преопширност — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • Serbo-Croatian: preopširnost — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • Spanish: palabrería — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • Swedish: mångordighet — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • Swedish: svammel — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • Turkish: laf kalabalığı — the excess use of words; long-windedness
  • Welsh: geiriogrwydd — the excess use of words; long-windedness