Periphrasis vs. Circumlocution — What's the Difference?

In linguistics, periphrasis () is the usage of multiple separate words to carry the meaning of prefixes, suffixes or verbs, among other things, where either would be possible. It is a device where grammatical meaning is expressed by one or more free morphemes (typically one or more function words accompanying a content word), instead of by inflectional affixes or derivation.

Circumlocution (also called circumduction, circumvolution, periphrasis, kenning or ambage) is a phrase that circles around a specific idea with multiple words rather than directly evoking it with fewer and apter words. It is sometimes necessary in communication (for example, to avoid lexical gaps that would cause untranslatability), but it can also be undesirable (when an uncommon or easily misunderstood figure of speech is used).

The use of circumlocution.

The use of unnecessarily wordy language, especially in being vague or evasive.

A circumlocution.

A roundabout or evasive expression

The use of a longer expression instead of a shorter one with a similar meaning, for example "I am going to" instead of "I will".

(uncountable) A roundabout or indirect way of speaking; thus:

(linguistics) Expressing a grammatical meaning (such as a tense) using a syntactic construction rather than morphological marking.

(uncountable) Unnecessary use of extra words to express an idea, such as a pleonastic phrase (sometimes driven by an attempt at emphatic clarity) or a wordy substitution (the latter driven by euphemistic intent, pedagogic intent, or sometimes loquaciousness alone).

(rhetoric) The substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name (a type of circumlocution).

(uncountable) Necessary use of a phrase to circumvent either a vocabulary fault (of speaker or listener) or a lexical gap, either monolingually or in translation.

(rhetoric) The use of a proper name as a shorthand to stand for qualities associated with it.

(countable) An instance of such usage; a roundabout expression, whether an inadvisable one or a necessary one.

See Periphrase.

The use of many words to express an idea that might be expressed by few; indirect or roundabout language; a periphrase.

A style that involves indirect ways of expressing things

A style that involves indirect ways of expressing things

An indirect way of expressing something