verbose suggests a resulting dullness, obscurity, or lack of incisiveness or precision.
the verbose position papers
prolix suggests unreasonable and tedious dwelling on details.
habitually transformed brief anecdotes into prolix sagas
diffuse stresses lack of compactness and pointedness of style.
diffuse memoirs that are so many shaggy-dog stories
Examples of wordy in a Sentence
The original script was too wordy.
her writing style is far too wordy for my tastes
Recent Examples on the WebThe wordy artworks by a diverse group of Italian women include pages from Italian music fanzines published from 1978 to 2006 and compiled by Dafne Boggeri into a book.—Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, 29 Mar. 2024 Like the nuns, viewers waver between certainty and suspicion, so the production remains intriguing despite the wordy dialogue.—Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 8 Mar. 2024 Most of the album’s songs are no wordier than that.—Steve Hochman, SPIN, 1 Mar. 2024 There do not need to be multiple footnotes and citations and wordy, number-heavy statements.—April Rudin, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024 Steam | Official site Tired of games that bog you down with hours of wordy tutorials to explain their complex mechanics?—Kyle Orland and Sarah Leboeuf, Ars Technica, 18 June 2023 Still, the wordy, whip-smart banter flows easily between the two, moving from kinda corny generational riffs to opening old wounds.—Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times, 3 Nov. 2023 The Welk’s set pieces and props are just adequate, and there were a couple of blips with the sound in the theater, which muddled some of this show’s witty and wordy lyrics.—David L. Coddon, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 Sep. 2023 That 2011 test message was a lot wordier than those used now.—Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY, 26 Aug. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'wordy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Time Traveler
The first known use of wordy was
before the 12th century
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