prolix
/ˈpɹəʊ.lɪks/US/pɹoʊˈlɪks/
prolix adjective: tediously lengthy; dwelling on trivial details.
Adjective
prolix (comparative more prolix, superlative most prolix)
- Tediously lengthy; dwelling on trivial details.
- "Give me but the luxury of answering to one of his prolix, contradictory speeches, and...I only ask the revenge of a reply."1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XX, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 298
- People who have blamed [Jean Charles Léonard de] Sismondi as unnecessarily prolix cannot have considered the crowd of details presented by the history of Italy.1843, G. C. Leonardo Sismondi., “Bossi—Necrologia”, in The Quarterly Review, volume 72, number 144, page 333
- Synonyms:
- verbose, circumlocutory, diffuse, periphrastic, palaverous, pleonastic, rigmarole, sesquipedalian, wordy
- Antonyms:
- brief, concise, crisp, laconic, lapidary, short-winded, succinct, tight, to the point, taut
- Long; having great length.
Verb
prolix (third-person singular simple present prolixes, present participle prolixing, simple past and past participle prolixed)
prolix meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
prolix in Urdu
- باتونی, طولانی, اکتا دینے والا
prolix in Bengali
- বাগাড়ম্বরপূর্ণ, অনাবশ্যক দীর্ঘ
prolix in Malayalam
- verbose, long-winded, wordy
- നീട്ടിവലിച്ച, മടുപ്പു ജനിപ്പിക്കുന്ന തരത്തിൽ നീളമുള്ള, അതിവിസ്തരമായ, സുദീർഘമായ, അന്തമില്ലാത്ത, അവസാനമില്ലാത്ത
prolix in Kannada
- ಬೇಸರಿಸುವಶ್ಟು ಉದ್ದದ
More languagesFewer languages
- prolix in Sanskrit
- पृथु pṛthú
- prolix in Tagalog
- mahabang talumpati
Examples of prolix in a sentence
- From General Peckem's office on the mainland came prolix bulletins each day headed by such cheery homilies as "Procrastination is the Thief of Time and "Cleanliness is Next to Godliness."1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “Major Major Major Major”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 90:
- Traditional narratives he found too prolix and discursive.1992 September 13, William Grimes, “The Ridiculous Vision of Mark Leyner”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- Prolix! / Nothing a pair of scissors can't fix!2008, Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, “We Call Upon The Author”, in Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, performed by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds:
Synonyms of prolix
Antonyms
Forms of prolix
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more prolix |
| superlative | most prolix |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | prolixes |
| present participle | prolixing |
| past participle | prolixed |
| past | prolixed |
Origin of prolix
From Old French prolixe, from Latin prōlixus (“stretched out; courteous, favorable”). The verb is derived from the adjective.
Words formed from prolix
Questions about prolix
- What does prolix mean?
- Prolix means tediously lengthy; dwelling on trivial details.
- What is prolix in Urdu?
- Prolix in Urdu is باتونی, طولانی, اکتا دینے والا. See Prolix meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use prolix in a sentence?
- From General Peckem's office on the mainland came prolix bulletins each day headed by such cheery homilies as "Procrastination is the Thief of Time and "Cleanliness is Next to Godliness."
- What part of speech is prolix?
- Prolix can be an adjective or a verb.
- How do you pronounce prolix?
- Prolix is pronounced /pɹoʊˈlɪks/ (US).
Words near prolix in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: prolix (page history and authors); prolix (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); prolix (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); prolix (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); prolix (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); पृथु (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). 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-prolix.wav.
Cite this entry: “prolix.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/prolix. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.