Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An expression in words; a word or phrase.
  • noun The manner in which something is phrased; wording.
  • noun A wordy phrase or sentence that has little meaning.
  • noun Abundant use of words without conveying much meaning.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Something expressed orally; a verbal remark or expression.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Something expressed verbally; a verbal remark or expression.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The expression of a concept in words; the wording used in such an expression
  • noun The excessive use of words, often with little meaning

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun overabundance of words
  • noun the communication (in speech or writing) of your beliefs or opinions

Etymologies

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Examples

  • As it turns out, this is not a popular view: already Russell (1923) argued that the very idea of wordly indeterminacy betrays a “fallacy of verbalism”, and some have gone as far as saying that de re indeterminacy is simply not “intelligible” (Dummett 1975: 314; Lewis 1986: 212) or ruled out a priori (Jackson 2001: 657).

    Wild Dreams Of Reality, 3 2009

  • His father used to get knocked for odd verbalism, syntax, etc. but nothing, nothing like GW.

    Quote Of The Day 2009

  • It has been noted that people do creative work in the social sciences at a later age than people in science and maths, I think that is because it takes longer to find out the genuine problems that are hidden in the verbalism.

    Humans as Creators Not Destroyers - The Austrian Economists 2008

  • I will not weary you with the verbalism, since you will be able to check it; the substance of my proclamation is this: I announce first that I have captured the English millionaire, the colossus of finance, Mr Samuel Harrogate.

    The Complete Father Brown 2003

  • I will not weary you with the verbalism, since you will be able to check it; the substance of my proclamation is this: I announce first that I have captured the English millionaire, the colossus of finance, Mr Samuel Harrogate.

    The Complete Father Brown 2003

  • Without action, teaching is merely verbalism and amounts to exhorting the farmers to do this or that without showing them how to do it and thus has limited impact on their farming practices.

    Chapter 7 1982

  • There is still another aspect - that of impotence disguised by verbalism: taking a stand on legal positions which cannot become a reality and planning counter-measures for contingencies that always differ from the one at hand.

    Willy Brandt - Nobel Lecture 1971

  • It was to be taken up again some centuries later by the Port-Royal grammarians in a far more adequate form, freed from the hampering medie - val veneration for authorities and from the sterile verbalism of the Schoolmen, and based on a far broader foundation of factual knowledge of languages.

    STUDY OF LANGUAGE ALVAR ELLEG 1968

  • The au - thor looks with distinct disfavor on the baroque, its sensual mysticism, its externality, its verbalism in con - trast to the truly Dutch (and at the same time universal) art of Rembrandt.

    BAROQUE IN LITERATURE REN 1968

  • Not only do I think Holt misfires here, but my philosophic conscience is aroused by his readiness to explain historic error as the result of the besetting sin of verbalism, particularly by his hacking on poor old Aristotle.

    A Psychological Issue Hawkins, David 1966

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