periphrastic
/ˌpɛ.ɹɪˈfɹæ.stɪk/US/ˌpɛ.ɹəˈfɹæ.stɪk/
periphrastic adjective: expressed in more words than are necessary.
Adjective
periphrastic (not comparable)
- Expressed in more words than are necessary.
- He wrote a periphrastic love letter to his wife to patch up their relationship.
- She was simply asked to express how she felt, but her response was periphrastic.
- Indirect in naming an entity; circumlocutory.
- In writing, they deem it irreverent to express the Supreme Being [and] in conversation they generally use a periphrastic epithet, such as the All-Good.1871, Edward Bulwer-Lytton (published anonymously), The Coming Race, Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons
- Characterized by periphrasis.
- “The daughter of the man” may be used as a periphrastic synonym for “the man’s daughter”.
periphrastic meaning in Tamil and Malayalam
periphrastic in Tamil
- புறஞ்சார்ந்த
periphrastic in Malayalam
- roundabout, circumlocutory, circuitous
- വക്രോക്തിയായ, വളച്ചുകെട്ടിപ്പറയുന്ന, വക്രോക്തി പ്രയോഗിക്കുന്ന, വിപരീതാർത്ഥമുള്ള, അർത്ഥം മനസ്സിലാക്കാനാവാത്ത, വാക്പ്രഞ്ചനംചെയ്യുന്ന
Examples of periphrastic in a sentence
- As poetry it does not measure up to Aasen; as translation it is periphrastic, arbitrary, not at all faithful.1916, Martin Brown Ruud, An Essay Toward a History of Shakespeare in Norway:
- That was a way of putting it—not very satisfactory/ A periphrastic study in a worn-out poetical fashion/ Leaving one still with the intolerable wrestle / With words and meanings.1940, T. S. Eliot, East Coker:
Forms of periphrastic
| alternative form | periphrasic |
|---|
Origin of periphrastic
Borrowed from Ancient Greek περιφραστικός (periphrastikós), from περίφρασις (períphrasis, “periphrasis”).
Words formed from periphrastic
Phrases with periphrastic
Words that rhyme with periphrastic
- plastic
- elastic
- fantastic
- bombastic
- mastic
- spastic
- heteroplastic
- inelastic
- pleonastic
- aclastic
- alloplastic
- anaclastic
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- anaplastic
- anticlastic
- aplastic
- autoplastic
- basiplastic
- ceroplastic
- chiastic
- clastic
- cosmoplastic
- drastic
- encomiastic
- enthusiastic
- epispastic
- gelastic
- gymnastic
- heteroblastic
- holophrastic
- homoblastic
- homoplastic
- macroplastic
- normoplastic
- onomastic
- paraphrastic
- sarcastic
- synclastic
- achondroplastic
- agelastic
- antineoplastic
- antiphrastic
- antispastic
- apicoplastic
- autoschediastic
- cataclastic
- chiliastic
- conplastic
- cranioplastic
- docimastic
- dramastic
- dynastic
- dysplastic
- ecclesiastic
- ectoblastic
- ectoplastic
- electroplastic
- emplastic
- epiblastic
- epinastic
- esemplastic
Questions about periphrastic
- What does periphrastic mean?
- Periphrastic means expressed in more words than are necessary.
- What is periphrastic in Tamil?
- Periphrastic in Tamil is புறஞ்சார்ந்த. See Periphrastic meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use periphrastic in a sentence?
- As poetry it does not measure up to Aasen; as translation it is periphrastic, arbitrary, not at all faithful.
- What part of speech is periphrastic?
- Periphrastic is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce periphrastic?
- Periphrastic is pronounced /ˌpɛ.ɹɪˈfɹæ.stɪk/ (UK).
Words near periphrastic in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: periphrastic (page history and authors); periphrastic (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); periphrastic (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-periphrastic.wav.
Cite this entry: “periphrastic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/periphrastic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.