verbiage

[ vur-bee-ij ]

noun

1. overabundance or superfluity of words, as in writing or speech; wordiness; verbosity.
2. manner or style of expressing something in words; wording:

   a manual of official verbiage.

verbiage

/ ˈvɜːbɪɪdʒ /

noun

1. the excessive and often meaningless use of words; verbosity
2. rare.
   diction; wording

Word History and Origins

Origin of verbiage¹

First recorded in 1715–25; from French, from Middle French verbi(er) “to gabble” (also guerbloier, verboier, werbler, with a change in spelling by association with verbe “word,” from Germanic; verb, warble ¹( def ) ) + -age -age

Word History and Origins

Origin of verbiage¹

C18: from French, from Old French verbier to chatter, from verbe word, from Latin verbum

Example Sentences

"It's more the voters within the party and the verbiage around human sexuality and gender."

From BBC

It's very mindful and very demure, one might say using TikTok verbiage.

From Salon

“For me to see how JJ is trying to bring the play calls and just level of IQ into each practice and each film session, to see how he’s prioritizing that. I’ve always been a guy that wants to prioritize high IQ, high verbiage, high film sessions... like, let’s rise to that,” Russell said.

From Los Angeles Times

Or, and here’s a crazy idea, CBS News could have fulfilled its public service duty to provide accurate information to better inform their viewers' understanding of each candidate by pasting the manual's verbiage into a live scroll.

From Salon

“I don’t think the verbiage is necessarily a part of the issue,” Bieniemy said.

From Los Angeles Times