periphrasis

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek περίφρασις (períphrasis).

Pronunciation

Noun

periphrasis (countable and uncountable, plural periphrases)

  1. 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".
  2. (linguistics) Expressing a grammatical meaning (such as a tense) using a syntactic construction rather than morphological marking.
  3. (rhetoric) The substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name (a species of circumlocution)
  4. (rhetoric) The use of a proper name as a shorthand to stand for qualities associated with it.

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