bombast
pompous or inflated speech
Root
- bombast: padding, stuffing, or inflated speech
Other words with the bombast root
- bombastic: inflated, pompous, or overblown in speech
- bombastically: in a pompous or inflated way
Bombast is language stuffed with padding: big sound, little substance.
The editorial’s bombast made a small policy change sound like the collapse of civilization.
Bombast is a gift of a word because the image is funny and useful. Picture a sentence overstuffed like a costume: swollen, dramatic, and proud of itself.
The key is not just “fancy language.” Good language can be grand. Bombast is inflated language that uses size to hide emptiness.