periphrasis
Example Sentences
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Prince Bumpo, the heir to the throne, is a mooncalf who mistakes fairy tales for real life, speaks in Elizabethan periphrasis and murmurs to himself: “If only I were a white prince!”
From New York Times ● Sep. 9, 2020
This periphrasis so fascinated Charles W. Morton, now the associate editor of the Atlantic, that he began collecting examples of "Elongated Yellow Fruit" writing.
From Time Magazine Archive
Oddly, they all speak the same puckish periphrasis.
From Time Magazine Archive
What hasty words, I wonder, of the rude and haughty admiral were represented by this sonorous periphrasis?
From Through East Anglia in a Motor Car by J. E. (James Edmund) Vincent
He recited the poem, which, however—for we possess it—only proves that between sleeping and waking eighteen lines of dreamy periphrasis may express a single idea.
From Amenities of Literature Consisting of Sketches and Characters of English Literature by Isaac Disraeli
The age of Delille wished to see everything described in elegant periphrases, and the periphrases arranged in harmonious verses.
From A Short History of French Literature by George Saintsbury
Thus has this great and magnificent virtue no name, and as science is powerless in creating words suitable for every-day language, it must rest satisfied with periphrases.
From Elements of Morals With Special Application of the Moral Law to the Duties of the Individual and of Society and the State by Paul Janet
But the reason why Christianity uses these periphrases or metaphors, these euphemisms for death, is the opposite of the reason why the world uses them.
From Expositions of Holy Scripture: Romans Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V) by Alexander Maclaren
Sun and moon and so on are spoken of by their natural unmistakable names, or in equally unmistakable poetical periphrases, as in riddles.
From Modern Mythology by Andrew Lang
By reading the English, French, and German columns downwards, the reader will see how many different roots and periphrases these languages employ in order to express the same ideas.
From International Language Past, Present and Future: With Specimens of Esperanto and Grammar by Walter John Clark
Vocabulary lists containing periphrasis
Reading: Literature - Literary Devices & Figures of Speech - High School
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Rhetoric
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Around and Around: Peri
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