as in rambling
passing from one topic to another
the speaker's discursive style made it difficult to understand his point
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Recent Examples of discursive
Written in the flush of a new friendship with co-producer, engineer, and musician Sam Weber, the album unspools a suite of folk miniatures riven with discursive melodies as evocative as the cultural ephemera dotted through the lyrics.
—
Nina Corcoran, Pitchfork, 29 Aug. 2025
Kate Zambreno’s Animal Stories, the newest installment in the publisher’s Undelivered Lectures series, relates Nabokov’s anecdote as part of a searching, charmingly discursive meditation on zoos.
—Book Marks
august 28, Literary Hub, 28 Aug. 2025
The story of Jussie Smollett had the effect of sucking one individual into a near-perfect storm of discursive tripwires.
—Daniel D'addario, Variety, 20 Aug. 2025
American leaders and commentators often portrayed international adversaries in unflattering and discursive brushstrokes.
—Time, 8 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for discursive
Nina Corcoran, Pitchfork, 29 Aug. 2025
Kate Zambreno’s Animal Stories, the newest installment in the publisher’s Undelivered Lectures series, relates Nabokov’s anecdote as part of a searching, charmingly discursive meditation on zoos.
—Book Marks
august 28, Literary Hub, 28 Aug. 2025
The story of Jussie Smollett had the effect of sucking one individual into a near-perfect storm of discursive tripwires.
—Daniel D'addario, Variety, 20 Aug. 2025
American leaders and commentators often portrayed international adversaries in unflattering and discursive brushstrokes.
—Time, 8 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for discursive
Recent Examples of Synonyms for discursive
Adjective
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In the past several years, Edge had filed a string of civil lawsuits with rambling, sometimes conspiratorial claims.—
Zoe Sottile,
CNN Money,
28 Sep. 2025
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Kiehne was frustrated with the Joneses because the county government wouldn’t grade the dirt road up to his ranch, a rambling territory along the New Mexico border.—
Mitch Moxley,
Rolling Stone,
27 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Others described sightings of a woman dressed in black wandering hallways, gardens and along the seashore.—
Noreen Kompanik,
Boston Herald,
26 Oct. 2025
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And there’s even an AI Kevin O’Leary wandering cyberspace.—
Bethy Squires,
Vulture,
22 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Most respiratory viruses, including Covid-19, flu and RSV, act through the indirect pathway, Roberts said, while enterovirus strains – related to the viruses that cause hand, foot and mouth disease – can directly infect the heart muscle.—
Asuka Koda,
CNN Money,
29 Oct. 2025
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Make sure the orchid gets bright, indirect light for six to eight hours indoors, and use a grow light if needed.—
Karen Brewer Grossman,
Southern Living,
29 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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This is slightly digressive, but Tunde and his lover, early on in the novel, have this big argument in Lahaina, in Hawaii.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 Nov. 2025
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The path to achieving this goal was already a digressive one, weaving together singing competitions, cloned dogs and a bald-capped Fielder breastfeeding from a giant puppet.—
Alison Herman,
Variety,
26 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Discursive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/discursive. Accessed 5 Nov. 2025.
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