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Is there a word similar to verbatim but means "Too many meaningless words used"?

I am looking for a word which describes the statement is meaningless with too many words.

Mari-Lou A
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goofyui
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3 Answers3

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A little bird tells me the word you might be looking for is verbose

adjective
using or expressed in more words than are needed.
"much academic language is obscure and verbose"

(Google)

It seems to me to fit the requirements.

Edit: The birdy has reminded me to mention Tautology (grammar),

is an unnecessary repetition of meaning, using multiple words to effectively say the same thing

(Wikipedia)

Neither of which necessarily mean the use meaningless words - just unnecessary ones.

To be honest, I would argue no word is truly meaningless. If it has a definition then that is its meaning.

If it is meaningless in the given context then that would, I think, be due to redundancy or superfluousness - in which case I think this answer is appropriate.

Avon
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    +1, even though that lil bird talks too much! –  Jul 03 '15 at 20:11
  • Just for clarity: Verbose refers to more words than necessary but does not convey the meaning of meaningless! –  Jul 03 '15 at 20:18
  • @Josh61 Quite right thank you. I have edited to make that clear. – Avon Jul 03 '15 at 20:22
  • If this is what OP thinks is the "right" answer then I think it's a bad question, because there's no inherent implication that a verbose utterance should be meaningless. If anything, the implication is normally that there is meaning - but it could and should have been expressed in far fewer words. If OP isn't looking for the word *verbosity* then for the reason as given, it's a bad answer. – FumbleFingers Jul 03 '15 at 21:23
  • @FumbleFingers I presume the OP meant superfluous instead of meaningless. As I said I don't think there's such a thing as a meaningless word. – Avon Jul 03 '15 at 21:26
  • There are words that are meaningless to the audience being addressed. – Brian Hitchcock Jul 04 '15 at 01:30
  • @BrianHitchcock Each recipient might not know the meaning of the word. But that doesn't make the word meaningless. – Avon Jul 04 '15 at 09:09
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If he goes off on a tangent , presenting facts unrelated to his point, he is

  • circumlocutory

or, in casual English:

  • beating {around/about} the bush

If he simply goes on and on, using more words than necessary, he is:

  • prolix (adj) or

  • verbose (adj) or

  • using **verbiage (n)

  • windy (or, more old-fashioned, a windbag)

  • long-winded (adj.—this especially captures both the length and emptiness of a speech)

If he's extremely windy, you could use another weather-related term (for a strong or violent wind):

  • blustering (v, adj) blustery (adj)

If it seems as if he just can 't talking—it seems as if he barely pauses for breath, going on as if he never pauses to think what he's saying, and often making no sense, he is "suffering" from a condition called

  • logorrhea (it's no coincidence this sounds like diarrhea—it's the same thing, just coming out the other end. In fact, if he spouts all nonsense, llies and tall tales, Americans call this bullshitting you. So if he persists, you could refer to his (endless) bullshit

If he repeats himself, varying the words but not the assertion, as if repetition would prove his point better, he is:

  • belaboring the {point/issue} (v)

or, more casually:

  • beating a dead horse (v)

if he is overly prone to using long words, he is:

  • sesquipedalian (v,n)

if he is overly prone to using obtuse, arcane or archaic words, particularly if he does this to distract you from the main point by making you follow his complicated logic, he is being intentionally

  • abstruse (adj—doesn't necessarily imply long, just complex and hard to follow)

But if he sounds as if he speaks mainly so that he can hear himself say those words, and show off his vocabulary, as if his knowledge of words constitutes knowledge of the subject (or makes up for lack of that knowlege), he is probably an incurable

  • logophile (n)

or worse yet, if he's totally enamored of his own words...

  • logophiliac (n)

[cf William F, Buckley]

If he goes on and on, beating you down with his rhetoric; with his opinions rather than facts, he is

  • (overly) oratorical (adj) or

  • bombastic (adj) or

  • bloviating (v,adj)... or A bloviator (n)

[cf Rush Limbaugh]

If he goes on and on, as if trying to convince you that he holds the higher moral position, he is

  • pontificating (v)

If he goes on, trying to convince you that your opinion is wrong, he is

  • expostulating (at length) (v)

If he takes too long because he spends time explaining to you things that you already understand, as if you were a simpleton, this is an extended form of

  • talking down to you (although this in itself does not imply long-windedness)

That's just a few off the top of my head. I'll add dictionary references later. Meanwhile, I recommend Merriam-Webster
http://i.word.com/

Brian Hitchcock
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verbal diarrhea is a crude term that expresses word helplessly being expelled from one's mouth.

dwjohnston
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