Word.ws English Dictionary

orotund

Syllables: or·o·tund/ˈɒɹə(ʊ)tʌnd/US/ˈɔɹə(ʊ)ˌtʌnd/

orotund adjective: of a voice: characterized by clarity, fullness, smoothness, and strength of sound; hence, of a person: having a clear, full, and strong voice, appropriate for public speaking, reading aloud, etc.

Adjective

orotund (comparative more orotund, superlative most orotund)

  1. Of a voice: characterized by clarity, fullness, smoothness, and strength of sound; hence, of a person: having a clear, full, and strong voice, appropriate for public speaking, reading aloud, etc.
  2. (broadly) Of writing, etc.: clear, effective, powerful.
  3. (broadly, derogatory) Of speech or writing: bombastic, pompous.
    • A series of U.N. and government officials spoke. And spoke. And spoke. Their words were grand, their sentences endless. In orotund turns of phrase—indeed, in spiraling helices of phrase; in snarled fishing lines of phrase; in endless small intestines of phrase—the speakers ingeniously explored and...1990, Robert Klitgaard, “Beginning to Move”, in Tropical Gangsters: One Man’s Experience with Development and Decadence in Deepest Africa, New York, N.Y.: Basic Books, →ISBN, page 124
    • He would also, you can't help thinking, have approved [Alan] Hollinghurst's discriminating eye and perhaps even enjoyed the half-facetious, half-adoring tributes Nick pays to his famously orotund late style, the "plums of periphrasis" Nick likes to slip into his conversation.2004 October 31, Anthony Quinn, “‘The Line of Beauty’: The last good summer [book review]”, in The New York Times Book Review, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from...

Noun

orotund (countable and uncountable, plural orotunds)

  1. (countable, obsolete) A voice characterized by clarity, fullness, smoothness, and strength of sound.
  2. (obsolete, uncountable) The quality of clarity, effectiveness, and power in speech or writing.

orotund meaning in Tamil, Bengali and Malayalam

orotund in Tamil

பகட்டான, உரத்த

orotund in Bengali

পূর্ণতা, অতএব, জনসাধারণের বক্তৃতা

orotund in Malayalam

sonorous, deep, strong
ഘന, ഘനഗംഭീരമായ, ഗംഭീരമായ, ഗാംഭീര്യമുള്ള, ആഴമുള്ള, ശബ്ദന
pretentious, pompous, affected
സാഡംബരമായ, കൃത്രിമഗാംഭീര്യമുള്ള, അലങ്കാരബഹുലമായ, വാചാടോപമായ, ഭാഷാലങ്കാരമുള്ള, അലങ്കാരസമൃദ്ധിയോടു കൂടിയ

Synonyms of orotund

7 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of orotund

Forms of orotund

Adjective
comparativemore orotund
superlativemost orotund
Noun
pluralorotunds

Origin of orotund

PIE word *h₁óh₃s The adjective is a learned borrowing from Latin ōre rotundō (“with a round mouth; hence, clear; loud”) (whence English ore rotundo), possibly influenced by rotund (“having a curved, round, or spherical shape; (figurative) of sound: full and rich”). Ōre rotundō is composed of ōre (the ablative singular of ōs (“mouth”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁óh₃s (“mouth”)) + rotundō (the ablative singular of rotundus (“circular, round”) (possibly from rota (“wheel”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *Hreth₂- (“to run”)) + -undus (suffix forming adjectives)). The noun is derived from the adjective.

Words formed from orotund

Questions about orotund

What does orotund mean?
Orotund means of a voice: characterized by clarity, fullness, smoothness, and strength of sound; hence, of a person: having a clear, full, and strong voice, appropriate for public speaking, reading aloud, etc.
What is orotund in Tamil?
Orotund in Tamil is பகட்டான, உரத்த. See Orotund meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is orotund?
Orotund can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce orotund?
Orotund is pronounced /ˈɒɹə(ʊ)tʌnd/ (UK).

Words near orotund in the dictionary

  1. orotomides
  2. orotone
  3. orotones
  4. orotracheal
  5. orotracheally
  6. orotund
  7. orotundities
  8. orotundity
  9. orotundly
  10. orotunds
  11. Orovada

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: orotund (page history and authors); orotund (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); orotund (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); orotund (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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