verbosity
/vɜːˈbɒsəti/ (bre, ipa) · /vɜːrˈbɑːsəti/ (ame, ipa) · /(ˌ)vər-ˈbä-sə-tē How to pronounce verbosity (audio)/ (ame, mw)
verbosity — noun
1. The tendency to use an excessive number of words when expressing an idea, which
The tendency to use an excessive number of words when expressing an idea, which makes speech or writing feel long and tiring to follow.
Kemi's history teacher returned her essay, noting verbosity weakened the argument, and advised cutting sentences that added nothing new.
verbosity + that-clause — teacher's negative judgment; the verbosity of [something] + weakens [something]
The politician's verbosity annoyed the audience, who wanted short answers instead of long speeches.
Ishaan edited his essay carefully to remove unnecessary verbosity and make his argument clearer.
While revising her first novel, Sofia crossed out entire paragraphs to remove verbosity and keep the plot moving.
Mira found the novel hard to finish because the author's verbosity slowed down the plot.
- wordiness
more general and slightly less formal; common in everyday editing advice
- long-windedness
informal; focuses on spoken communication that goes on too long
- prolixity
formal, often used for legal or academic texts that feel drawn out
- conciseness
the positive quality of expressing much in few words
- brevity
shortness of expression, often valued in speeches or summaries
文法句型
the verbosity of [something]
用法筆記
Frequently used to criticise writing or speech that would be more effective if shorter. Common in editorial or academic contexts.
常見錯誤
2. A technical setting that controls how much detail a computer system or program s
A technical setting that controls how much detail a computer system or program shows about its operations, or how many words and symbols a programming language needs to express a function.
Tuan set the compiler's verbosity to high so he could see every warning message.
set verbosity to [level] + compiler
Noor reduced the verbosity of the server logs to save hard drive space.
The software's default verbosity produced too many messages, hiding the actual errors.
Java is known for its verbosity — printing 'hello' needs several lines of code, whereas Python does it in one.
Lan increased the test program's verbosity to learn why the software installation failed.
- log level
more specific; refers to the hierarchy of log severity (error, warning, info, debug)
- output detail
descriptive phrase rather than a single-word synonym; less technical
- terseness
a programming language or output style that uses few characters or lines
文法句型
[verb] the verbosity of [system/language]
set verbosity to [level]
用法筆記
A technical term used mainly by software developers and system administrators. In computing, 'verbosity' refers to the level of detail shown in log files or command output, not a negative quality — high verbosity can be helpful for debugging.