Wordage Meaning
/ˈwɜːrdɪdʒ/Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounWords collectively, considered in a mass sense.
nounThe excessive use of words.
Sentence Examples
The writer was paid based on the total amount of wordage produced.
Wordage is a word that refers to an amount of words in a document.
The editor asked him to reduce the wordage of article.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The editor asked the writer to reduce the ____ of his article from 2000 to 1500 words.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The manager asked the writer to reduce the overall ____ of the report to make it more concise and easier for readers today.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree English word Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos Proto-Italic *-ātos Latin -ātus Proto-Indo-European *-ikos Proto-Italic *-ikos Latin -icus Latin -āticus Latin -āticum Old French -agebor. Middle English -age English -age English wordage From word + -age.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Here, I think, we must class the portmanteau-wordage of James Joyce, in which the use of verbal and syllabic association is carried so far that its power of unconscious persuasion is lost and the reader’s response is diverted by a conscious ecstasy of enigma-hunting, like a pig rooting for truffles."
— 1941, Dorothy L. Sayers, chapter 10, in The Mind of the Maker, London: Methuen, page 122:
"The official transcript totaled 2,045,000 words—more than twice the wordage of the Bible."
— 1951 July 2, “MacArthur Hearing: Curtain”, in Time, retrieved 21 Apr 2015:
"A work of elucidation couched in a lazily dense style; a biography seemingly concerned with externals but in fact spun from inside the biographer like a spider’s thread; a critical study which exceeds in wordage all the major works of its subject put together…"
— 2002, Julian Barnes, “Flaubert’s Death-Masks”, in Something to Declare, New York: Knopf:
""With the wordage in the contract, we think we have a good case.""
— 1990 May 15, Jack Curry, “Winfield Case Heads to Arbitrator”, in New York Times, retrieved 21 Apr 2015:
Explore More C2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The editor asked the writer to reduce the ____ of his article from 2000 to 1500 words.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The manager asked the writer to reduce the overall ____ of the report to make it more concise and easier for readers today.