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Wordy vs Verbose vs Prolix vs Diffuse vs Redundant

Wordy, verboseprolixdiffuseredundant can all mean using or marked by the use of more words than are necessary to express the thought.

Wordy often carries no further implications, though it may suggest garrulousness or loquacity when the reference is to speech.

Verbose suggests overabundance of words as a literary fault characteristic especially of a writer or public speaker or of a work or speech; it often implies resulting dullness or obscurity of expression or a lack of incisiveness, confusion of ideas, or grandiloquence.

Prolix implies such attention to minute details as to extend what is written or told beyond due bounds; the term carries a stronger implication of tediousness or wearisomeness than verbose .

Diffuse usually implies verbosity, but it throws the emphasis upon the lack of organization and of the compactness and condensation needed for pointedness and for strength of style; it often attributes flabbiness, looseness, or desultoriness to what is written.

Redundant can apply to whatever is superfluous, but in its specific application to words and phrases the term implies a superfluity that results from being repetitious or unneeded for clarity and accuracy of expression. In its corresponding application to writers, speakers, or utterances redundant implies the use of redundancies (see redundancy under VERBIAGE ).