Verbose

Verbose describes communication that uses more words than necessary to convey meaning. In literature and everyday speech, a verbose style can emphasize detail and nuance, sometimes at the expense of clarity. The term derives from the Latin verbosus, meaning wordy, via Old French into English.

In writing and rhetoric, verbose prose offers thorough description, background, and emphasis. It can aid understanding when precision is required, but it risks redundancy and reader fatigue. Editors often pursue concision, removing superfluous adjectives and repetition to improve flow and readability.

In computing and software, verbose mode expands output to include additional status messages, diagnostics, and data. This verbosity helps developers debug and users diagnose issues, but can overwhelm logs and slow interfaces. Verbosity levels can be adjusted, typically from quiet or normal to verbose or debug.

See also: verbosity, conciseness, log level, and verbose mode.