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His success serves as an eloquent reminder of the value of hard work.
an eloquent writer and speaker, Elizabeth Cady Stanton was one of the founders of the women's rights movement
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'eloquent.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Since "eloquent" can have to do with speaking, it makes sense that it comes from the Latin verb loqui, which means "to speak." "Loqui" is the parent of many "talkative" offspring in English. "Loquacious," which means "given to fluent or excessive talk," also arose from "loqui." Another "loqui" relative is "circumlocution," a word that means someone is talking around a subject to avoid making a direct statement (circum- means "around"). And a "ventriloquist" is someone who makes his or her voice sound like it’s coming from another source.
First Known Use: 14th century
in the meaning defined at sense 1
See Words from the same yearcasual, colloquial, conversational, informal, nonformal, slangy, unbookish, unliterary, vernacular;
coarse, common, crass, crude, gross, ill-bred, indecent, lowbred, lowbrow, rough, rough-hewn, rude, tasteless, uncouth, uncultivated, uncultured, unpolished, unrefined, vulgar;
incorrect, substandard, uneducated, ungrammatical, unlearned;
affected, bombastic, declamatory, florid, flowery, grandiloquent, grandiose, highfalutin (also hifalutin), oratorical, pompous, pretentious, rhetorical (also rhetoric), stilted;
classy, courtly, fine, graceful, tasteful;
aristocratic, genteel, patrician;
correct, educated, grammatical, proper;
academic (also academical), bookish, learned, literary;
: having or showing the ability to use language clearly and effectively
: clearly showing feeling or meaning
Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for eloquent Spanish Central: Translation of eloquent Nglish: Translation of eloquent for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of eloquent for Arabic speakers
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