This week we continue our vocabulary-building series, “The Closing Word.” Each week we provide a new word to help build your vocabulary and show you an example of how to use it.
This week’s closing word:
Pronounced: (TUR-jid)
Adjective:
1. ostentatiously lofty in style; tediously pompous or bombastic
2. abnormally distended, especially by fluids or gas
Note:
Turgid is sometimes confused with turbid. Turbid means opaque, muddy, or confused. While they sound the same (and hence always sound right when they are misused in a sentence), the meaning matters. Funnily enough, turgid prose is often fairly turbid!
A deeper look at turgid vs. turbid can be found here:
https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/chooseyourwords/turbid-turgid/
Examples:
1. “The description of the property was absolutely turgid. The listing agent had piled on so much flowery description that nothing short of a true cathedral would have met our expectations.”
2. “A turgid portion of the sagging ceiling confirmed what we had long suspected; the roof had a serious leak.”
