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
For all the revelry, there was a tough, discursive seriousness in the approach that Lang and O’Hara took to their labors in the late forties and early fifties.
—
Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 13 Oct. 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
Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 13 Oct. 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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Also in the village, with lower prices, the June Lake Villager Motel is a rambling property beneath a vintage mid-century sign.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
29 Jan. 2026
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Her editor figured that Bainbridge could get away with a rambling, nostalgic performance.—
Christopher Tayler,
Harpers Magazine,
27 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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Like a lot of messy divorces, this started with a wandering eye, a lover scorned and boils down to the money.—
Dana O’Neil,
CNN Money,
21 Jan. 2026
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After spending a few days, a wandering light leads them to the next world.—
Leo Barraclough,
Variety,
15 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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Their clean collisions would allow more precise measurements of scattering amplitudes, making the FCC ultrasensitive to indirect signs of new physics.—
Quanta Magazine,
Quanta Magazine,
26 Jan. 2026
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Unemployment, in an indirect way, is another.—
Matt Richardson,
CBS News,
26 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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The result is digressive, elliptical, and occasionally absurd—and yet also genuinely revealing of the mental-health challenges facing pilots and the sometimes brutal social dynamics of the cockpit.—
Inkoo Kang,
New Yorker,
8 Dec. 2025
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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
Cite this Entry
“Discursive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/discursive. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.
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