Word of the Day
: July 15, 2026loquacious
playWhat It Means
Loquacious means “liking to talk and talking smoothly and easily.” Someone described as loquacious might also be called wordy (prone to using more words than necessary) or garrulous (tending to talk a lot).
// We were entertained all afternoon by our host’s loquacious parrot and its nonstop script of favored phrases.
loquacious in Context
“Due to their loquacious nature, marmosets have recently become a focus of studies on the evolutionary origin of human speech and language.” — Tobias Kahland et al., Nature Communications, 28 Mar. 2026
Did You Know?
Loquacious undeniably has a poetic ring to it. It’s been a favorite of the writerly sort since it made its first appearance in English in the 17th century and, with poetic license, writers stretched its meaning beyond “talkative,” and especially “excessively talkative,” to describe such things as the chattering of birds and the babbling of brooks. The ultimate source of all this chattiness is loquī, a Latin verb meaning “to talk, speak.” Other words descended from loquī include colloquial, eloquent, soliloquy, and ventriloquism.
Test Your Vocabulary with M-W Quizzes
Word Family Quiz
Fill in the blanks to complete a noun derived from Latin loquī (“to talk, speak”) that refers to the art of effective public speaking: _ l o c _ t _ _ n.
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