pleonastic
Using unnecessary words
Pleonastic describes language that uses more words than necessary to convey meaning, often through redundant expressions.
A phrase like free gift is pleonastic because gifts are by definition free.
Writers and editors flag pleonastic constructions as wordiness, though some redundancy serves emphasis or clarity.
The term comes from rhetoric, where pleonasm names this figure of excess, but in everyday use pleonastic simply means needlessly wordy.
Using more language than necessary
- prolixExcessively wordy in speech
- circumlocutorySpeaking in circles
- periphrasticExpressed through excess words
- long-windedExcessively wordy, tediously so
loquacious · garrulous · rambling · diffuse · discursive · expansive · voluble · meandering
Exceeding what suffices
- unnecessaryNot essential or required
- excessiveSurpassing reasonable bounds
- repetitiveMarked by recurrence
- tautologicalSelf-repeating in meaning
redundant · needless · overelaborate · padded · overkill · surplus · extraneous · gratuitous
Pretentiously elevated in speech
- bombasticExcessively inflated language
- floridExcessively ornate or ruddy
- ornateElaborately decorated
- pompousAffectedly grand in manner
sesquipedalian · magniloquent · highfalutin · purple · overwrought · aureate · turgid · tumid
Redundant or circular statement
- circumlocutionIndirect, wordy expression
- repetitionAct of redoing
- reiterationSaying something again
- restatementRewording of something said
verbosity · prolixity · verbiage · wordiness · padding · amplification
wordy
Using more language than necessary
- prolixExcessively wordy in speech
- circumlocutorySpeaking in circles
- periphrasticExpressed through excess words
long-winded · loquacious · garrulous · rambling · diffuse · discursive · expansive · voluble · meandering · circumlocutionary
superfluous
Exceeding what suffices
- unnecessaryNot essential or required
- excessiveSurpassing reasonable bounds
- repetitiveMarked by recurrence
tautological · redundant · needless · overelaborate · padded · overkill · surplus · extraneous · gratuitous · unneeded
grandiloquent
Pretentiously elevated in speech
pompous · sesquipedalian · magniloquent · highfalutin · purple · overwrought · aureate · turgid · tumid · flowery
tautology
Redundant or circular statement
- circumlocutionIndirect, wordy expression
- repetitionAct of redoing
- reiterationSaying something again
restatement · verbosity · prolixity · verbiage · wordiness · padding · amplification
- nonessentialunnecessary, unneeded, nonessential, inessential, dispensable
- tedioustedious, tiresome, wearisome, boring, monotonous