periphrasis.
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".
Meaning & usage
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".
Expressing a grammatical meaning (such as a tense) using a syntactic construction rather than morphological marking.
Language learners sometimes use periphrases like "did go" where a native speaker would use "went".
Native speakers use periphrases like "did not go" where a language learner might use "went not".
The substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name (a type of circumlocution).
The use of a proper name as a shorthand to stand for qualities associated with it.
Where this word comes from
From Ancient Greek περίφρασις (períphrasis).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.