ambage

Thân thiện

The speaker used ambage to avoid giving a direct answer.

Definition

Noun: 1. Indirect or roundabout expression: A style of speaking or writing that uses unnecessarily complex, vague, or evasive language instead of being direct and clear. It often involves deliberate circumlocution.

Usage

• Ambage is a formal and somewhat literary noun, typically used in discussions of rhetoric, writing style, or critical analysis of speech. It describes the or of indirectness itself.
• It is often used in the plural form "ambages" to mean indirect or winding paths of language.
• Common structures: "to speak in ambage," "the ambage of his prose," "without ambage."

Examples

• The politician's answer was pure ambage, skillfully avoiding a direct commitment.
• Modernist poetry is sometimes criticized for its deliberate ambage, which can obscure meaning.
• We have no time for ambage; please state your position clearly and without evasion.

Advanced Usage

• "To speak without ambage": To speak plainly, directly, and without beating around the bush.
  • Let me speak without ambage: the project has failed.
• The term can be used metaphorically beyond language to describe any intentionally indirect or circuitous process.

Variants and Related Words

• Circumlocution (n): The use of many words where fewer would do, especially in a deliberate attempt to be vague or evasive. (A close synonym).
• Periphrasis (n): The use of indirect and circumlocutory speech or writing.
• Ambiguous (adj): Open to more than one interpretation; not having one obvious meaning.
• Tergiversation (n): Evasion of direct action or clear statement; equivocation.

Synonyms

• Circumlocution
• Indirectness
• Periphrasis
• Tergiversation
• Equivocation
• Evasiveness

Antonyms

• Directness
• Candor
• Frankness
• Plainness
• Straightforwardness

Related Idioms and Phrases

• To beat around the bush: To avoid talking about what is important.
• To mince words: To speak vaguely or indirectly, especially to avoid offense.
• In a roundabout way: Not in a simple, direct, or quick way.

Học thuật

Noun

1. a style that involves indirect ways of expressing things

Từ đồng nghĩa

• circumlocution
• periphrasis