Grandiloquence
Speech or writing that is deliberately lofty, ornate, and inflated — often at the expense of clarity.
Grandiloquence is a rhetorical register in which the speaker or writer chooses the grandest available word for every occasion. It is not a figure of speech but a mode: a preference for the elevated over the plain, the Latinate over the plain-Saxon, the periodic sentence over the direct one.
In its high form, grandiloquence carries the weight of ceremony — coronations, eulogies, national addresses, and religious liturgy all traditionally require it. In its low form, it is empty pomp, and much political speech drifts there. The line between the two is drawn by whether the ornament is doing real emotional or moral work, or merely decorating the vacuum.
As a quality of quotation, grandiloquence explains why some famous lines feel stirring in context and hollow on a coffee mug. Torn from the ceremonial occasion that gave them weight, they can read as pomposity. The careful quoter preserves enough of the surrounding language to keep the register intact.
“We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
Keep reading the glossary
A formal public speech — the original setting for many of the most-quoted lines in history.
The art of persuasive speaking and writing — the discipline behind every great quoted line.
The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the start of successive clauses.
Deliberate exaggeration for effect — not meant to be taken literally.