variants also rigamarole
as in gobbledegook
language marked by abstractions, jargon, euphemisms, and circumlocutions the security guard gave me some kind of rigmarole about passes and authorizations

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of rigmarole The bust was followed by months of prolonged legal rigmarole. John Semley, Rolling Stone, 19 Apr. 2025 Editors’ Picks Our Favorite Bathrooms Kermit has been through the graduation rigmarole before. Callie Holtermann, New York Times, 28 Mar. 2025 But not as weird as the rigmarole of the music industry. Justin Curto, Vulture, 26 Mar. 2025 Is there a company that prides itself on an absence of rigmarole? Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 22 July 2024 See All Example Sentences for rigmarole
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rigmarole
Noun
  • Bob Kring DeBary Congressional bill is full of greed The Great Big Beautiful Bill reads like 950 pages of of gobbledygook distilled into four words: Greedy, stingy, mean and short-sighted.
    Letters to the Editor, The Orlando Sentinel, 2 July 2025
  • The six-episode limited series feels like a long movie broken into arbitrary episodes, its ending is mired by digital gobbledygook, and Marvel still doesn’t know how magic makes sense in a universe ruled by advanced technology and literal gods.
    Ben Travers, IndieWire, 24 June 2025
Noun
  • Between February and May, when Dudek’s tenure ended, his erratic rhetoric and decisions routinely made front-page news.
    Eli Hager, ProPublica, 8 Sep. 2025
  • By moving from rhetoric to large-scale military action, Maduro is signaling that Venezuela will fight drug trafficking on its own terms while resisting Washington's narrative of Caracas as a narco-state.
    Amir Daftari, MSNBC Newsweek, 8 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • My last thought, here, beware of the endless gibberish about the hazards of rotations.
    Jim Cramer, CNBC, 24 Aug. 2025
  • Her toddler, who was almost two, leaned over the railing and called out to the agents in baby gibberish, but the agents did not acknowledge her.
    Jordan Salama, New Yorker, 25 July 2025
Noun
  • Moro Ojomo earned the most hype of the non-Carter defensive linemen this summer.
    Zach Berman, New York Times, 8 Sep. 2025
  • While crypto has endured cycles of hype and disillusionment, its actual utility may finally find its most potent expression in AI data markets.
    Forbes.com, Forbes.com, 7 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • Driving the news: The statement was published only in English on the Facebook page of the Israeli Prime Minister's Office — potentially another case of double-talk by Netanyahu.
    Barak Ravid, Axios, 27 Sep. 2024
  • The GOP Senate candidate in Arizona, whose brand is a combative, never-back-down MAGA politics, has adopted a position on the issue that is nearly indistinguishable from that of double-talking Democrats.
    Rich Lowry, National Review, 14 Apr. 2024
Noun
  • And the bizarre song and dance numbers, for all their anachronism, pull us in further.
    Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 4 Sep. 2025
  • In early colonial times, churches had strict guidelines on music, song and dance.
    Kaitlyn Keegan, Hartford Courant, 19 July 2025

Browse Nearby Words

Podcast

Cite this Entry

“Rigmarole.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rigmarole. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.

More from Merriam-Webster on rigmarole

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!