🗣️ Circumlocution: Geometric SAT Vocabulary?
CIRCUMLOCUTION most nearly means: A) exaggeration; B) wordiness; C) deception; D) repetition. Answer inside. 👉️
How to remember: circum means circle; you already know this. locution relates to speech. Put them together, and you have talking in circles, literally.
📚️ Definition of Circumlocution
Circumlocution (noun): The use of unnecessarily wordy or indirect language to express something that could be stated more simply and directly; speaking in a roundabout way. Example: a tendency toward circumlocution when answering difficult questions.
🗣️ Pronunciation of Circumlocution
IPA: /ˌsɜːr.kəm.loʊˈkjuː.ʃən/ (See IPA key)
Respelling: sur-kum-lo-KYOO-shun
📰 Examples of Circumlocution
Here are some examples of the word circumlocution:
The politician’s circumlocution frustrated the journalist, who had asked a simple yes-or-no question, but got back a long, rambling answer that deflected the original question.
In Charles Dickens’s Little Dorrit (1857), the fictional “Circumlocution Office” is a government department that so buried in red tape that it never accomplishes anything.
I asked Jordan if he had finished his assignment, and after five minutes of circumlocution about how busy he’s been, I realized he hadn’t.
“Circumlocution, n. A literary trick whereby the writer who has nothing to say breaks it gently to the reader.” — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)
Quiz answer: B, wordiness.
🧠 Summary of Circumlocution
Definition: Circumlocution means the use of many words where fewer would do, or speaking in an indirect, roundabout way to avoid saying something directly.
Examples: Bureaucratic language, legal jargon, and evasive political answers.
Real-world connection: You encounter circumlocution whenever someone avoids saying something they don’t want to say.
SAT relevance: Circumlocution could appear as a vocabulary-in-context question, in answer choices describing an author’s style, or within a reading passage discussing rhetoric and persuasion.
Good luck on the SAT tomorrow if you’re taking it!