circumlocutions

Roundabout ways speaking

Circumlocutions are roundabout ways of expressing something—using many words where fewer would do.

A circumlocution avoids direct statement, whether for tact, evasion, or pomposity: Instead of saying he was fired, she offered circumlocutions about "pursuing other opportunities".

The term often carries mild criticism, implying someone is being unnecessarily indirect.

rhetoric

euphemism

Mild substitute for bluntness

pleonasmRedundant expression
tautologyRedundant or circular statement
verbosityUnnecessary word excess

prolixity · redundancy · grandiloquence · bombast · amplification · padding · embellishment · flourishes · ornamentation · inflation

evasion

dodging

Avoiding by moving aside

sidesteppingMoving aside to avoid
avoidanceDeliberate keeping away
eludingEscaping or avoiding skillfully

skirting · hedging · equivocating · deflecting · ducking · bypassing · evading · tergiversation · obfuscating · stonewalling

indirectness

obliqueness

Lack of directness

roundaboutnessQuality of being indirect
allusivenessQuality of indirect reference
implicationIndirect suggestion or consequence

insinuation · innuendo · tangentiality · meandering · hinting · suggestiveness · ellipsis · understatement · subtlety · indirection

Opposites

directness of expression

circumlocutionsbluntness

Frank, unvarnished manner

directness · forthrightness · candor · straight talk · frankness

verbal economy

circumlocutionsbrevity

Shortness of expression

conciseness · terseness · succinctness · laconicism · pithiness

Family

circumlocution

Familiarity: Top 500,000
Profile: Used worldwide · Timeless · Abstract · Rated G