orotund

English

Etymology

From Latin ōre rotundō (“with a round mouth”) hence “clear, loud”, from ōs (“mouth”) + rotundus (“round”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔːɹətʌnd/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

Adjective

orotund (comparative more orotund, superlative most orotund)

1. Characterized by fullness, clarity, strength, and smoothness of sound.
2. Pompous; bombastic.
   • 1990, Robert Klitgaard, Tropical Gangsters: One Man's Experience with Development and Decadence in Deepest Africa:

     In orotund turns of phrase—indeed, in spiraling helices of phrase; in snarled fishing lines of phrase; in endless small intestines of phrase--the speakers ingeniously explored and invented connections between qwerty, alphabetical filing, and socioeconomic advance.

   • 2004 October 31, Anthony Quinn, “'The Line of Beauty': The Last Good Summer”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     […] the half-facetious, half-adoring tributes Nick pays to his famously orotund late style, the "plums of periphrasis" Nick likes to slip into his conversation.

Synonyms

• (fullness of sound): sonorous; see also Thesaurus:sonorous
• (pompous): pompous; see also Thesaurus:arrogant

Related terms

• oral

Translations

with fullness, clarity, strength, and smoothness of sound

• Bulgarian: звучен (bg) (zvučen), плътен (bg) (plǎten)
• German: volltönig, sonor (de)

pompous; bombastic

• Bulgarian: надут (bg) (nadut), претенциозен (bg) (pretenciozen)
• German: geschwollen (de), bombastisch (de), pompös (de)
• Spanish: altisonante (es), grandilocuente (es), pomposo (es), bombástico, rimbombante (es), hueco (es), altílocuo (es), altilocuente (es), altísono (es)

Anagrams

• rotundo, round to