periphrasis
/pəˈɹɪfɹəsɪs/noun
periphrasis is spelled P-E-R-I-P-H-R-A-S-I-S: 11 letters. It appears about once in every 68 million words in written English, the 258,950th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, periphrasis means “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"” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of periphrasis is periphrases.
How many letters and syllables are in periphrasis?
| Letters | 11: P-E-R-I-P-H-R-A-S-I-S |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 68 million words; the 258,950th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is periphrasis?
Periphrasis appears about once in every 68 million words in written English, the 258,950th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce periphrasis?
- US /pəˈɹɪfɹəsɪs/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Neøn-periphrasis.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of periphrasis
- periphrases plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does periphrasis mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
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".
Near-synonyms: circumlocution, loquaciousness
- 2
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
The substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name (a type of circumlocution).
- 4
The use of a proper name as a shorthand to stand for qualities associated with it.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Periphrasis in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense use of a longer expression instead of a shorter one:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | périphrase |
| Portuguese | perífrase |
| Spanish | perífrasis |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does periphrasis come from?
From Ancient Greek περίφρασις (períphrasis).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).