periphrastic

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

But it seems to this reader, Rebecca becoming Maud also speaks to the preoccupation of this entire book: the periphrastic construction of identity itself.

From New York Times • Mar. 29, 2022

He misrepresents, distorts, bisects sentences and employs periphrastic phrases to make his points.

From Time Magazine Archive

Thus Caedmon, in speaking of the ark, calls it the sea-house, the palace of the ocean, the wooden fortress, and by many other periphrastic names.

From English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History Designed as a Manual of Instruction by Coppee, Henry

Adj. diffuse, profuse; wordy, verbose, largiloquent†, copious, exuberant, pleonastic, lengthy; longsome†, long-winded, longspun†, long drawn out; spun out, protracted, prolix, prosing, maundering; circumlocutory, periphrastic, ambagious†, roundabout; digressive; discursive, excursive; loose; rambling episodic; flatulent, frothy.

From Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases by Roget, Peter Mark

Coptic presents a remarkable contrast to Egyptian in the precision of its periphrastic conjugation.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 1 "Edwardes" to "Ehrenbreitstein" by Various