50 Verbose Verbs To Drop Into Everyday Conversation

If you’re grandiloquent, then you like to use extravagant, high-flown words—precisely like the 50 verbs listed here, which either refer to everyday activities or else can be used in place of everyday words.

1. ABVOLATE

If a bird (or anything else) abvolates, then it flies away.

2. ACERVATE

To acervate something is to pile it up, or to sweep or gather it into a mound.

3. ADMARGINATE

To admarginate is to write in a margin, or to make notes alongside the text in a book.

4. ADVESPERATE

When the day advesperates, it grows dark.

5. ALLATRATE

Dogs don’t just bark, they allatrate.

6. BASIATE

To basiate is to kiss, as is to osculate.

7. BULBITATE

Derived via Latin from a Greek word meaning manure, to bulbitate is to mess your pants. (Hopefully not an everyday word.)

8. CACHINNATE

To cachinnate is to laugh loudly or unrestrainedly. To decachinnate is to laugh at or deride someone.

9. CALCEATE

When you put your shoes on, you calceate. When you take them off—particularly as a mark of respect—you discalceate.

10. CAPERATE

To caperate is to frown; if something is caperated, it’s wrinkled or creased.

11. CARBUNCULATE

If something carbunculates, it burns, literally like a piece of coal—the Latin word for which is the origin of the word carbuncle.

12. COQUINATE

To coquinate is to cook or serve food for others.

13. DEBLATERATE

To deblaterate is to babble or prattle unthinkingly, or to blurt something out.

14. DECAPULATE

Capula essentially meant cup or small vessel in Latin, and so to decapulate means to pour or empty something from one container into another.

15. DEFLOCCATE

To defloccate something is to wear it out, while …

16. DEGLABRATE

... to deglabrate it is to smooth it.

17. EXCUDE

Derived from a Latin word, cudere, meaning to beat or strike out, the verb excude can be used to mean to find something out by studying it.

18. EXTRAVAGE

To extravage or to extravagate is to wander from the point, both literally (as in, to wander around unfocusedly) and figuratively (as in a conversation).

19. FELICITATE

To felicitate someone is to make them happy.

20. GNATHONIZE

Gnatho was the name of an obsequious, toadying servant in a comedy by the Roman playwright Terence, and derived from that to gnathonize, which means to flatter someone, or to behave sycophantically.

21. GURGITATE

To gurgitate or to ingurgitate—unlike to regurgitate—means “to eat or devour food.”

22. HOSPITIZE

To hospitize is to entertain a guest.

23. INANULATE

To inanulate—literally, “to make into rings”—is to curl your hair.

24. INSUSSURATE

To insussurate is to whisper in someone’s ear.

25. JENTICULATE

Eat your breakfast and you’ll have jenticulated.

26. LABEFACTATE

Derived from a Latin word meaning to weaken or to make unsteady, to labefactate something is to knock it over or cause it to fall.

27. LALLATE

To lallate is to speak like a baby.

28. LUCUBRATE

To lucubrate or to elucubrate is to work by candlelight or artificial light—or, in other words, to work long into the night. A piece of work produced by burning the midnight oil, incidentally, is a lucubration.

29. MANTICULATE

To maniculate is to do something stealthily, or to take something from someone while they’re not looking.

30. MANDUCE

Derived from the Latin word for “hand,” manuduction is a 16th century word for leading or guiding someone—and derived from that, to manuduce or manuduct is to lead someone or something by the hand.

31. MANUSCRIBE

To manuscribe is to write your signature, or to write something out by hand.

32. NEMN

To nemn someone is to mention them by name.

33. OBLIGURE

To obligure is to feast or eat a great meal.

34. PANDICULATE

Pandiculation is the proper name for the stretching and yawning you do when you wake up, and so to pandiculate is to do precisely that.

35. PUNGLE

Derived from a Spanish word, pongale, meaning put it down, to pungle is to make a payment for or contribution towards something.

36. QUAERITATE

Quaeritate is an 18th century word meaning to search for an answer, or to inquire into something—essentially an 18th century equivalent of to Google.

37. REIMPLACE

Reimplace something, and you put it back where it was.

38. SCURRYFUNGE

Scurryfunge is an old American dialect word meaning to hastily tidy a house before a visitor arrives.

39. SEMITATE

Derived from semita, the Latin for path, to semitate is to make a path through something.

40. SNUDGE

To snudge is to walk while thinking contemplatively.

41. SURFLE

A surfle is an ornate trim or embroidered border, but according to the Oxford English Dictionary, as a verb it can also be used to mean “to paint or wash the face or body with a cosmetic.”

42. TITUBATE

Derived from a Latin word meaning to stagger, to titubate can also be used to mean “to stammer” or “to falter in your speech,” an act also known as titubation.

43. TRANSNATE

Instead of doing lengths in the pool, you can transnate it—a 17th century verb meaning to swim across something.

44. TRIPUDATE

Taken from a Latin root literally meaning “three feet,” to tripudiate is to skip or dance for joy, or to leap with excitement.

45. TUDICULATE

To tudiculate is to bruise something, or to knock or hit it hard.

46. UNKEN

To unken someone is to fail to recognize them.

47. VENUSTATE

To venustate something is to make it beautiful. The opposite, should you ever need it, is devenustate.

48. VETERATE

To veterate is to grow old.

49. VIGILATE

Derived from the same root as vigilant, to vigilate is to be wakeful or sleepless, or to stay awake all night.

50. WITWANTON

To witwanton is to give time to idle thoughts to speculations, or to make a joke of failing to understand something.