prolixity

[ proh-lik-si-tee ]

noun

1. the state or quality of being unnecessarily or tediously wordy; verbosity:

   The book offers food for thought but, for all its prolixity, fails to effectively explain what is at the core of irony as a rhetorical strategy.

2. a tendency to speak or write at great or tedious length:

   As a communicator, the official suffers from a lethal mix of ailments: terminal prolixity, rampant hyperbole, and a preference for bureaucratic jargon.

Other Words From

• o·ver·pro·lix·i·ty noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of prolixity¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Middle French prolixité “lengthiness, verbosity,” from Late Latin prōlixitāt- (inflectional stem prōlixitās ) “tedious length in speech or writing,” from Latin: “extension in time or space”; prolix ( def )

Example Sentences

As Chief Justice John Marshall said in 1819, the nature of a constitution was that it was designed for the ages and therefore could not “partake of the prolixity of a legal code.”

From Washington Post

Smith’s rendering of “The White Book” cannot be accused of prolixity.

From New York Times

As with Anthony Burgess and John Updike, Roth’s astonishing prolixity exhausted even his most loyal readers.

From The Guardian

A wordsmith who leaves no one speechless and no zippy phrase unturned, he’s got a gift for gab that goes beyond logorrhea and prolixity into rat-a-tat felicity.

From Wall Street Journal

Facebook can be really annoying in that it seems to be based on a 10-year-old’s idea of friendship, and because it is filled with pointless prolixity and banality from boring people.

From Washington Post