as in rambling
using or containing more words than necessary to express an idea
a person known for habitually transforming brief anecdotes into prolix sagas that exhaust their listeners
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in repetition
the use of too many words to express an idea
prolixity is one of the worst offenses that a writer of any age can commit
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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Recent Examples of prolix
Barry Schwabsky, ARTnews.com, 3 Sep. 2019
In 1949, a young American artist named Ray Johnson left Black Mountain College near Asheville, N.C., moved to New York City and began to explore his prolix talents, both visual and verbal.
—Roberta Smith, New York Times, 30 May 2024
The album is a concise, 10-song set, a deliberate contrast to prolix streaming-era albums like the ones released lately by Taylor Swift and Beyoncé.
—Jon Pareles, New York Times, 17 May 2024
A certain type of actor thrives in these prolix circumstances.
—Los Angeles Times, 12 Oct. 2021
His answer is this book: a laudably sincere, exasperatingly prolix and occasionally affecting rumination on the state of Egypt—its society, culture, history and politics—pegged to the maddening bureaucracy of the archive.
—Kapil Komireddi, WSJ, 12 Mar. 2023
Most books and essays published these days are too long: gummed up with adjectives and pointless asides, laden with prolix displays of expertise.
—Barton Swaim, WSJ, 19 Sep. 2022
There’s a hypnotic quality to this freewheeling central section, a sustained charge that falters in some of the more prolix passages around it.
—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 1 Sep. 2022
Ames’s ruminations on the soul are prolix, philosophical, and profoundly sad.
—Hermione Lee, The New York Review of Books, 22 Oct. 2020
Adjective
Words, including those of artists themselves—as prolix in their way as critics, curators, and historians—can serve vision but can also deflect from it.
—Barry Schwabsky, ARTnews.com, 3 Sep. 2019
In 1949, a young American artist named Ray Johnson left Black Mountain College near Asheville, N.C., moved to New York City and began to explore his prolix talents, both visual and verbal.
—Roberta Smith, New York Times, 30 May 2024
The album is a concise, 10-song set, a deliberate contrast to prolix streaming-era albums like the ones released lately by Taylor Swift and Beyoncé.
—Jon Pareles, New York Times, 17 May 2024
A certain type of actor thrives in these prolix circumstances.
—Los Angeles Times, 12 Oct. 2021
His answer is this book: a laudably sincere, exasperatingly prolix and occasionally affecting rumination on the state of Egypt—its society, culture, history and politics—pegged to the maddening bureaucracy of the archive.
—Kapil Komireddi, WSJ, 12 Mar. 2023
Most books and essays published these days are too long: gummed up with adjectives and pointless asides, laden with prolix displays of expertise.
—Barton Swaim, WSJ, 19 Sep. 2022
There’s a hypnotic quality to this freewheeling central section, a sustained charge that falters in some of the more prolix passages around it.
—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 1 Sep. 2022
Ames’s ruminations on the soul are prolix, philosophical, and profoundly sad.
—Hermione Lee, The New York Review of Books, 22 Oct. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for prolix
Adjective
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There is more than 178 feet of beach and ocean frontage, which can be accessed via a rambling wooden staircase.Emma Reynolds, Robb Report, 5 Nov. 2024
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Some, of course, will find this style of writing off-putting and too rambling or the prose verging on purple, the narrative perhaps not story-driven enough.Erik Kain, Forbes, 10 Oct. 2024
Noun
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The repetition of it was intimidating at first, but has now become almost sort of like therapeutic.Jeff Conway, Forbes, 4 Nov. 2024
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This line is reflexively repeated by pundits, talkers, and thinkers on both sides of the American political divide, and that repetition always engenders a great deal of backlash.Gordon G. Chang, Newsweek, 1 Nov. 2024
Adjective
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Those born under the Gemini zodiac sign are said to be talkative, outgoing and adaptable.Olivia Munson, USA TODAY, 18 June 2024
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Crying babies and talkative couples aside, the sound of the plane’s engine alone can be enough to make in-flight naps feel impossible.Amelia McBride, Travel + Leisure, 18 Oct. 2024
Adjective
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The lawmaker said that the usable speech only came after four or five prompts that generated unusable material, either too verbose or oddly phrased, an illustration of how important the input into the AI is to the result.Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 25 Jan. 2023
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The verbose coach was at somewhat of a loss for words, opting to forgo opening remarks in his postgame press conference and instead diving right into questions.Tom Green | tgreen@al.com, al, 18 Jan. 2023
Noun
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But many French are deeply sick of hearing his volcanic verbosity.Lee Hockstader, Washington Post, 1 July 2024
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Williams is regarded as a smart player, but has always played with a lot of emotion — and verbosity.Danny Emerman, The Mercury News, 24 Feb. 2024
Adjective
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This is a talky chamber piece of philosophical face-offs, debate duels and wordy warfare, though the outcomes remain just as harrowing.Katie Walsh, Twin Cities, 7 Nov. 2024
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Using the Concise function on highlighted text to boil it down strips out too much personality, while the Friendly function gets too wordy and often misses the sentence's or paragraph's original point.PCMAG, PCMAG, 7 Nov. 2024
Noun
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Just as the limitless space of web text tempts writers to indulge their logorrhea, the blinking, ever-transmuting, cartoonish interface of web browsers prevents would-be readers from paying attention to anything for longer than about 7 seconds.Barton Swaim, WSJ, 19 Sep. 2022
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Nor has Musk kept his Twitter logorrhea in check in other respects.Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 28 Apr. 2022
Noun
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To be as green as possible, the French maker of fragrance diffusion technologies Scentys introduced at Luxe Pack its new invention: sustainable, reusable capsules created with a blend of metal and plastic.Jennifer Weil, WWD, 22 Oct. 2024
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Popular on Variety The aroma will be activated at Alamo theaters via Joya Studio’s atomization technology, which employs cold-air diffusion to disperse scented molecules as fine, dry air without the use of heat, water or alcohol.Ethan Shanfeld, Variety, 22 Oct. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Prolix.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/prolix. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.
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