Meanings
comparative more verbose · superlative most verbose
- Containing or using more words than necessary; long-winded, wordy.
[...] I might ſeem to deſerve juſtly to be accounted a verboſe and ſilly Defender; [...]
1692, John Milton, “The Author’s Preface”, in [Joseph Washington], transl., A Defence of the People of England, […]: In Answer to Salmasius’s Defence of the King, [London?]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page i5 more examples
I omit more than an Hundred Things, that would engage to perſonal Reflection; for my Soul hath no Pleaſure in ſtriving therein, as knowing the inconſiſtancy of that uncharitable virulent Temper with a Chriſtian Spirit, which I am aſſured is quite another Thing, from what is Verboſe, Abuſive[,] Cavilling, Airy, and meerly Notional; [...]
1672, W[illiam] P[enn], “To the Impartial Reader”, in The Spirit of Truth Vindicated, against that of Error & Envy; […], [London: […] Andrew Sowle ...], →OCLC, page 8Thy ſonnet is a piece of verboſe fuſtian; and thy preface is compoſed of far-fetch'd expreſſions, vvords that have not the publick ſtamp, perplexed phraſes; in a vvord, thy ſtile is quite peculiar to thyſelf; […]
1751, [Alain-René Lesage], “Gil Blas Meets His Dear Friend Fabricius at Court: […]”, in [Tobias George Smollett], transl., The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane. […], 3rd edition, volume III, London: […] J. Osborn, […], →OCLC, book VII, page 87We mentioned as another of the faults of Dr. [Charles] Anthon's book, that it exhibited his usual verbose grandiloquence. [...] We objected, for instance, to the lexicon, as loaded with useless words; and we suggested that the probable cause was the desire of procuring for it the appearance of completeness and originality.
1840 October, “Art. XI.—Critical Notices. 1.—A Reply to an Attack on Anthon’s Greek Reader, in the North American Review for July, 1840. The Knickerbocker. Extra. New York. 8vo. pp. 11.”, in The North American Review, volume LI, number CIX, Boston, Mass.: Ferdinand Andrews, […], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 498So with sentences or the combinations of words. Much skill is required for their construction. They must convey your meaning accurately, and as far as possible in the natural order of thought, and yet they must not be complex, involved, verbose, stiff, ungainly, or tautological. They must be brief, but not curt; explicit, but not verbose. Here, again, good taste must be your guide, rather than rules which teachers propound, but which the pupil never follows.
1863, Edward W[illiam] Cox, “Letter VIII. Words—Sentences—Rhythm.”, in The Arts of Writing, Reading and Speaking, in Letters to a Law Student, London: John Crockford, […], →OCLC, page 51On the Furness section the sign at Grange is as brief—PASSENGERS MUST CROSS BY THE SUBWAY—as that at the next station, Arnside, is verbose: PASSENGERS ARE REQUESTED TO CROSS THE LINE BY THE BRIDGE. IT IS DANGEROUS TO CROSS THE RAILS.
1942 April, Bernard Fielding, “Crossing the Line”, in Railway Magazine, page 103Antonyms: brief, concise, crisp, laconic, lapidary, short-winded, succinct, tight
- computingProducing detailed output for diagnostic purposes.
For troubleshooting purposes, enable verbose logging for the WUA by following these steps: [...]
2015, Andre Della Monica, Chris Shilt, Russ Rimmerman, Rushi Faldu, “Understanding Software Update Architecture: Client Side”, in Mitch Tulloch, editor, Microsoft System Center: Software Update Management Field Experience, Redmond, Wash.: Microsoft Press, →ISBN, page 192 more examples
You should use verbose logging sparingly. Turning on verbose logging for every process would result in log files so large they would become useless.
2001, Richard Blum, “Common Postfix Problems”, in Postfix, Indianapolis, Ind.: Sams Publishing, →ISBN, part III (Advanced Postfix Server Topics), page 532Verbose logging adds extra detail and increases the descriptiveness of the log entries made. Verbose logging also adds one additional client log file that is specific to DCM, SmsClrHost.log, and one management point log file, MP_GetSdmPackage.log.
2009, Kerrie Meyler, Byron Holt, Greg Ramsey [et al.], “Desired Configuration Management”, in System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Unleashed, Indianapolis, Ind.: Sams Publishing, →ISBN, part III (Configuration Manager Operations)
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveContaining or using more words than necessary; long-winded, wordy.
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*werh₁-“to say, speak”
- Latinverbōsus“prolix, wordy, verbose”
- Englishverbose
From Latin verbōsus (“prolix, wordy, verbose”). Verbōsus is derived from verbum (“word”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *werh₁- (“to say, speak”)) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of, overly, prone to’ forming adjectives from nouns). Equivalent to verb (“word”) + -ose (“-ful”), literally “full of words”.
More words from Latin, Proto-Indo-European
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek περισσολόγος
- περισσολόγος (perissológos)containing or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
Bulgarian многосло́вен
- многосло́вен (mnogoslóven)containing or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
Catalan verbós
- verbóscontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
Chinese Mandarin 羅嗦 /罗嗦, 冗長 /冗长
- 羅嗦 /罗嗦 (luōsuo)containing or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- 冗長 /冗长 (rǒngcháng)containing or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- 冗贅 /冗赘 (rǒngzhuì)containing or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- 絮叨containing or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
Czech mnohomluvný, verbalistický
- mnohomluvnýcontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- verbalistickýcontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- upovídanýcontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
Dutch verbeus
- verbeuscontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
Finnish monisanainen
- monisanainencontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
French verbeux, prolixe
- verbeuxcontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- prolixecontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
German ausführlich, langatmig
- ausführlichcontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- langatmigcontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- wortreichcontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- verboscontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- ausführlich(computing) producing detailed output for diagnostic purposes
- wortreich(computing) producing detailed output for diagnostic purposes
- verbos(computing) producing detailed output for diagnostic purposes
Greek πολύλογος, μακροσκελής
- πολύλογος (polýlogos)containing or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- μακροσκελής (makroskelís)containing or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- φλύαρος (flýaros)containing or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- αναλυτικός (analytikós)(computing) producing detailed output for diagnostic purposes
- λεπτομερής (leptomerís)(computing) producing detailed output for diagnostic purposes
Hawaiian hoʻonui ʻōlelo
- hoʻonui ʻōlelocontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
Hungarian beszédes, bőbeszédű
- beszédescontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- bőbeszédűcontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- fecsegőcontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- szószátyárcontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- részletes(computing) producing detailed output for diagnostic purposes
- részletező(computing) producing detailed output for diagnostic purposes
Indonesian penyedehanaan kata, cerewet
- penyedehanaan katacontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- cerewetcontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- banyak omongcontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- detail(computing) producing detailed output for diagnostic purposes
- rinci(computing) producing detailed output for diagnostic purposes
Irish briathrach, foclach
- briathrachcontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- foclachcontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
Italian verboso, iperverboso
- verbosocontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- iperverbosocontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- logorroicocontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- prolissocontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- ridondantecontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
Japanese 冗長, くどくどしい
- 冗長 (jōchō)containing or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- くどくどしい (kudokudoshii)containing or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
Korean 자세한 정보
- 자세한 정보 (jasehan jeongbo)containing or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
Latin verbōsus
- verbōsuscontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
Malay berjela-jela
- berjela-jelacontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
Māori autaki
- autakicontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
Polish przegadany
- przegadanycontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
Portuguese verboso
- verbosocontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
Russian многосло́вный
- многосло́вный (mnogoslóvnyj)containing or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
Scottish Gaelic briathrach, faclach
- briathrachcontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- faclachcontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
Spanish verboso
- verbosocontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
Swedish mångordig, okoncis
- mångordigcontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
- okonciscontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
Turkish ayrıntılı, detaylı
- ayrıntılı(computing) producing detailed output for diagnostic purposes
- detaylı(computing) producing detailed output for diagnostic purposes
Welsh geiriog
- geiriogcontaining or using more words than necessary — see also long-winded, wordy
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with verbose
Anagrams
Cite this entry
verbose. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/verbose
“verbose.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/verbose. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “verbose,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/verbose.
Source: verbose on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.