locu-, loc- +

1. A formal speech or address, especially one that contains an authoritative statement on a subject or an exhortation to someone: "Even before he became the 16th President of United States, Abraham Lincoln was well known for his clear and very concise style of allocution."
2. A traditional formal question directed by a court to a defendant convicted of a felony before sentencing, asking whether or not the defendant has anything to say regarding why the sentence should not be pronounced against him or her: "I believe that to have interfered as I have done, as I have freely admitted I have done, in behalf of God's despised poor, I did no wrong, but right. Now, if this court should deem it necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice . . . I say let it be done."

So went the court room allocution of John Brown, American hero to the slaves.

1. The use of unnecessarily wordy and indirect language.
2. Evasion in speech or writing instead of speaking or writing directly to the point.
3. A roundabout way of expressing oneself.
4. A roundabout or indirect way of speaking.
5. The use of more words than necessary to express an idea.
6. A description of a person who is overly given to using long words; especially when verbal construction utilizing less amplification might represent a more naturally efficacious phraseology.

Relating to, or consisting of, circumlocutions; periphrastic; circuitous.

Verbosity and circumlocution are too often substituted today for clear, direct expression. For example, a Shakespearean play title has appeared as follows: “There is an ongoing viability to the aggregate of human enterprises that attain a terminal configuration without being adversely impacted.”

The noncircumlocutional title is, All’s Well That Ends Well.

Someone who uses excessive sesquipedalian terminology; that is, anyone who is unclear in his or her speech or writing.

1. Roundabout and unnecessarily wordy; rambling, meandering, verbosity, prolixity (boring verboseness).
2. A reference to expressing something in more words than are necessary.

A cartoon example of being circumlocutory

Hobbes: How are you doing on your new year's resolutions?

Calvin: I didn't make any. See, in order to improve oneself, one must have some idea of what's "good". That implies certain values. But as we all know, values are relative. Every system of belief is equally valid and we need to tolerate diversity. Virtue isn't "better" than vice. It's just different.

Hobbes: I don't know if I can tolerate that much tolerance.

Calvin: I refuse to be victimized by notions of virtuous behavior.

A speaking or conversing together; a conference; a mutual discourse.

1. One of the speakers in a dialogue.
2. Any of the people engaged in a conversation

1. An expert manner of speaking involving control of voice and gesture.
2. The art of speaking clearly and well, with correct enunciation.

1. A style of speaking especially in public.
2. Pertaining to elocution or to public speaking; rhetorical.

1. A public speaker trained in voice production, gesture, and delivery.
2. Someone who practices or teaches elocution.

Pertaining to oratorical expression.

A discussion or conversation involving two or more people; a conversation.

1. A participant in a discussion or conversation.
2. Someone who takes part in a conversation, often formally or officially.
3. The man in the middle of the line of performers in a minstrel troupe, who acts as the announcer and banters (lighthearted teasing or amusing remarks) with the end men.

1. A statement issued provisionally during a lawsuit; such as, an interlocutory decree.
2. Pronounced or decided during the course of an action, or suit, and merely temporary or provisional in nature.
3. Involving or characteristic of a conversation or a discussion.

1. A phrase or expression typically used by a group of people.
2. A particular word, phrase, or expression; especially, one that is used by a particular person or group.
3. Style of speaking; phraseology; the way in which someone speaks.