periphrasis

About 0.08 uses per million words.

Meaning

1. noun 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. noun 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".

3. noun The substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name (a type of circumlocution).
4. noun The use of a proper name as a shorthand to stand for qualities associated with it.

Similar words

circumlocution periphrase antiphrasis ampliatio antiphrase epiphrasis paralepsis paraphrasia monophrasis proverbial

Often followed by

for of is and in with to as or

Word family

periphrases