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  • Adj.

grandiloquent

gran-DIL-uh-kwuhnt

Context
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Elizabeth found Edward’s invitation to the movies to be too flowery and grandiloquent. There really was no need for him to grandiloquently recite the request in rhyme, or for him to wear a top hat and speak in such a fancy way with such big words! Furthermore, his grandiloquent or overly formal expression embarrassed her since he read his poem in front of her soccer team at practice. It was only a date to the movies, after all, not a grandiloquent, impressive marriage proposal!

Quiz: When is someone’s speech grandiloquent?

  • When it says too little.
  • When it is too showy and exaggerated.
  • When it gives a formal invitation.
Definition

Memory Hook
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Grandiose Eloquence Howard was too grandiose in his attempts to sound eloquent and sophisticated; he was being grandiloquent.

Examples
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  • Paris' Le Monde praised organizers for providing 'a quite sober and well-done spectacle, alternating lightness and gravity, never grandiloquent or vulgar.' — Sports Illustrated
  • Another student, totally unprepared for his exam in Chinese history, labeled his blue book 'Number Two,' wrote a single grandiloquent concluding paragraph and handed it in. — TIME
  • While it is no doubt great fun to make grandiloquent proclamations about the need to defend 'minority rights', it gets us absolutely nowhere in resolving any of the critical issues: Which minorities? — The Economist
  • Naive, perhaps, but fundamentally not much different from President Bush’s grandiloquent words after the Columbia disaster: 'Mankind is led into the darkness beyond our world by the inspiration of discovery and the longing to understand. — The Washington Post

Word Ingredients
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grand great, lofty, powerful
-i- connective
loqu talk, speak
-ent being in a state or condition

One who is prone to being grandiloquent is often “in a state or condition of speaking in a great, lofty, or powerful” way.

Word Constellation
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Grandiloquent