circumlocution.

The use of unnecessarily indirect wording instead of saying something plainly.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• resort to circumlocution
• evasive circumlocution
• a cumbersome circumlocution

On the page

After ten minutes of circumlocution, the minister finally admitted that the bridge was unsafe.

Her father called the dismissal a change in circumstances, a circumlocution she refused to repeat.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary. Forms: Uncountable for the practice; singular circumlocution and plural circumlocutions for individual expressions. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.