Get the FREE one-click dictionary software for Windows
or the iPhone/iPad and Android apps
Noun: circumlocution  ,sur-kum-low'kyoo-shun or ,sur-kum-lu'kyoo-shun
  1. A style that involves indirect ways of expressing things
    "His circumlocution made the simple message unnecessarily complex";
    - periphrasis, ambage [archaic]
     
  2. An indirect way of expressing something
    "His comment about the weather was a circumlocution of his dissatisfaction with the meeting";
    - indirect expression

Derived forms: circumlocutions

Type of: equivocation, evasion, verboseness, verbosity

Encyclopedia: Circumlocution