noun

verbiage

VUR-bee-ij/ˈvɜːrbiɪdʒ/

Wording, especially when excessive or needlessly complicated.

The editor removes blocks of unnecessary verbiage.

An editor strips a manuscript down to its small surviving core: nearly all of the dense draft is crossed out in whole blocks, while a short clean version sits beside it.

Etymology

The base means “to chatter,” so verbiage names word use conceived as chatter rather than useful communication. That connection explains its emphasis on unnecessary wording, not simply a large vocabulary.

In context

Andrew Huberman61:20

make people type two diabetes prone by way of communication from these melanopsin cells to a structure in the brain called the habenula. Why am I throwing out all this verbiage? Well, because people have asked for more mechanisms.

The Science of Vision, Eye Health & Seeing Better

More examples

She removed unnecessary verbiage from the report.
Plain wording replaced the official verbiage.
He preferred direct answers to elaborate verbiage.

Forms

verbiage

Similar words

wording: Wording is neutral; verbiage often criticizes excessive or complicated wording.
jargon: Jargon uses specialized terms; verbiage may be wordy without being technical.