orotund

adjective

oro·tund ˈȯr-ə-ˌtənd

ˈär-

Synonyms of orotund next

: marked by fullness, strength, and clarity of sound : sonorous

an orotund voice

: pompous, bombastic

an orotund speech

orotundity

ˌȯr-ə-ˈtən-də-tē

ˌär-

noun

Did you know?

An experiment: first breathe in deeply, then try to sing the strongest, lowest note that you can, at the utmost floor of your register. How lovely. Now, what vowel did you sing for your one-syllable song? We’ll bet you a skillet full of bacon it was o. Why? Shaping one’s mouth into an o-shape is pretty much a surefire way to produce an orotund or resonant sound, that is, one that is full, strong, and loud. Try the same exercise with a long e sound, as in sleep, and see (or hear) what we mean. Orotund comes from the Latin phrase ore rotundo, literally meaning "with round mouth." It was adopted into English in the late 18th century to describe the strength of one’s vocal delivery but has since picked up an additional sense of "pompous" or "bombastic" to describe inflated speech that may be full of sound and fury, yet signifies nothing.

Examples of orotund in a Sentence

the tenor's orotund voice was just what this soaring aria needs a master of the orotund prose that is favored by academic journals of literary criticism

Recent Examples on the Web

These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

But the extravagance of Tudor self-aggrandizement is almost comical, and it wasn’t limited to the orotund Henry plastering his face onto biblical kings. —

Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 30 Dec. 2022 Novoselov had a boisterous, orotund way of talking that even the interpreter seemed to have trouble making sense of. —

Margaret Talbot, The New Yorker, 11 Aug. 2021 The speaker’s orotund oratory, his mannered put-downs, his mock pretentiousness, his pompous, practiced, often hilarious jawing will be no more. —

Karla Adam, Washington Post, 31 Oct. 2019