wordiness
wordiness — noun
1. The use of more words than are needed to express an idea, especially long or for
The use of more words than are needed to express an idea, especially long or formal words, which makes speech or writing less clear and harder to follow.
The editor marked every section of his report for wordiness and crossed out whole paragraphs.
collocation: mark/reduce/eliminate wordiness
Lan's email was so full of wordiness that her manager asked her to rewrite it.
pattern: so + full of + wordiness + that-clause
Good writers avoid wordiness by cutting empty phrases like "due to the fact that" from their drafts.
The professor's wordiness confused the class, who struggled to find her main point.
Sophia revised her essay twice to remove wordiness and make every sentence clearer.
- verbosity
The most direct synonym; slightly more formal and classical in tone.
- prolixity
Very formal term, used mostly of written style that is tediously long.
- long-windedness
Informal alternative; describes speech or writing that goes on for too long.
- redundancy
Emphasises unnecessary repetition of words or information, not just length.
- conciseness
The quality of expressing much in few words; the direct opposite of wordiness.
- brevity
Shortness of expression; implies efficient use of words.
- succinctness
Being clearly expressed in few words; suggests both brevity and clarity.
用法筆記
Frequently used in editing and academic writing contexts as a negative quality. The opposite of conciseness.