periphrasis

Fetched 2026-10-26 (cache).

Synonyms: periphrases, periphrastic, periphrase, paraphrasis, periphrased, periphrasing, periphysis

Antonyms: periphrases, periphrastic, periphrase, paraphrasis, periphrased, periphrasing, periphysis

Related words from Datamuse; suggestions, not definitions.

Noun

1. The use of a [[long]]er [[expression]] instead of a [[short]]er one with a similar meaning, for example "I am going to" instead of "I will".
2. {{lb|en|linguistics}} Expressing a grammatical meaning (such as a [[tense]]) using a [[syntactic]] [[construction]] rather than [[morphological]] marking.
3. {{lb|en|rhetoric}} The substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name (a type of [[circumlocution]]).
4. {{lb|en|rhetoric}} The use of a proper name as a shorthand to stand for qualities associated with it.

Source: Wiktionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wiktionary dump) · cached copy, not a rewrite.