verbosity

noun

ver·​bos·​i·​ty (ˌ)vər-ˈbä-sə-tē How to pronounce verbosity (audio)
: the quality or state of being verbose or wordy : the use of too many words
So his wife's good-natured jab about his verbosity comes as no surprise, nor did it when an impromptu conversation with him Monday afternoon stretched so long it nearly made me late to pick up my kids from daycare.Matt Driscoll
… an art form with more than its share of superfluous verbosity and thematic self-indulgence …Chris Jones
At its worst it suffers from the verbosity and repetitiveness of a political science treatise …Edward Mortimer

Examples of verbosity in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Williams is regarded as a smart player, but has always played with a lot of emotion — and verbosity. Danny Emerman, The Mercury News, 24 Feb. 2024 The spirit of Lester Bangs was coursing through the site, which became known for ridiculously purple prose and an electric verbosity that could thrill or grate, depending on the reader. Hazlitt, 24 Jan. 2024 Nevertheless, those who wish to undermine church teachings will find in its ambiguity and verbosity license to do so. Madeleine Kearns, National Review, 24 Dec. 2023 The Art of Brevity — Saying More with Less • Micro-moments: The fast pace of social media doesn’t afford the luxury of verbosity. Christian Anderson (trust'n), Rolling Stone, 14 Nov. 2023 Early reactions point toward the perpetually fan cast Idris Elba, or even Jason Momoa, whose breakout role as Khal Drogo could be a great starting point, with a slight uptick in verbosity. Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 11 Nov. 2023 In other words, when there is no issue, the logs can remain in a low verbosity state, and then once an issue arises that needs troubleshooting, a developer can increase the verbosity in order to collect all of the necessary data with the click of a button. Shahar Fogel, Forbes, 11 Jan. 2023 This will allow your engineering team to zoom in on application components and change the verbosity for specific files, functions and services. Shahar Fogel, Forbes, 11 Jan. 2023 Her verbosity is legend. Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker, 19 Dec. 2022

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'verbosity.' 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

1541, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of verbosity was in 1541

Dictionary Entries Near verbosity

Cite this Entry

“Verbosity.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/verbosity. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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