verbality

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English

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Etymology

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From verbal +‎ -ity.

Noun

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verbality (countable and uncountable, plural verbalities)

  1. The state or characteristic of consisting of words; that which consists simply of verbiage.
    • 1914, F. C. S. Schiller, "Dr. Mercier and Formal Logic," Mind, New Series, vol. 23, no. 92, p. 568:
      For my own investigations of traditional logic lead irresistably to the conclusion that it is essentially an equivocation between psychology and verbality.
    • 1989, A. Kibédi Varga, “Criteria for Describing Word-and-Image Relations”, in Poetics Today, volume 10, number 1, page 37:
      In other words, to read a visual poem is to betray it; to restore it to verbality is to eliminate half of its meaning.
  2. Proficiency or fluency in the use of words.
    • 1966, Shirley S. Angrist, “Communication about Birth Control: An Exploratory Study of Freshman Girls' Information and Attitudes”, in Journal of Marriage and Family, volume 28, number 3, page 285:
      Generally, high communicators were found to be: college majors in humanities or natural sciences, Jewish or Catholic persons, first-born or only children, and those high in verbality.

Anagrams

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