Synonyms of holding forth

holding forth

phrase

present participle of hold forth

as in speaking

to give a formal often extended talk on a subject

The professor held forth on the current state of politics until everyone was sick of the topic.

Synonyms & Similar Words

• speaking
• lecturing
• talking
• taking the floor
• expatiating
• haranguing
• discoursing
• descanting
• orating
• declaiming
• soliloquizing
• reciting
• disserting
• sermonizing
• expounding
• pontificating
• mouthing
• spouting
• filibustering

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of holding forth

The members of the second clan, meanwhile, can’t be relied on to dance or to wear clothes well—just look at the images of Wilson on the beach at Truro, holding forth in a dress shirt. — Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 7 Sep. 2026

Porter sketched Trotsky holding forth at a conference table, proselytizing to the American bureaucrats. — Dan Chiasson, The New York Review of Books, 1 Aug. 2026