source: By GianniG46 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

WORDY, VERBOSE, PROLIX, DIFFUSE mean using more words than necessary to express thought.

WORDY may also imply loquaciousness or garrulity.

e.g. a wordy speech

VERBOSE suggests a resulting dullness, obscurity, or lack of incisiveness or precision.

e.g. the verbose position papers

PROLIX suggests unreasonable and tedious dwelling on details.

e.g. habitually transformed brief anecdotes into prolix sagas

DIFFUSE stresses lack of compactness and pointedness of style.

e.g. diffuse memoirs that are so many shaggy-dog stories

verb |dəˈfyo͞oz|

spread or cause to spread over a wide area or among a large number of people:

〈知識･情報などが〉広まる, 普及する

e.g. no object : technologies diffuse rapidly

〈知識･情報など〉を広める, 普及させる(spread)

e.g. with object : the problem is how to diffuse power without creating anarchy.

Physics become or cause (a fluid, gas, individual atom, etc.) to become intermingled with a substance by movement, typically in a specified direction or at specified speed:

〘物理〙 拡散する

e.g. no object : oxygen molecules diffuse across the membrane

«…を通して/…に» 〈熱･ガス･光･におい･液体など〉を拡散［放散］する, 散らす «through/into»

e.g. with object : gas is diffused into the bladder.

with object cause (light) to glow faintly by dispersing it in many directions.

adjective |dəˈfyo͞os|

spread out over a large area; not concentrated:

〈物が〉拡散［放散］した, 広がった

e.g. the diffuse community centered on the church

e.g. the light is more diffuse.

(of disease) not localized in the body:

e.g. diffuse hyperplasia.

lacking clarity or conciseness:

〈文体･話しぶりなどが〉言葉が多くわかりづらい, 散漫な, 冗長な, あいまいな.

e.g. the second argument is more diffuse.

diffusely |dəˈfyo͞oslē| adverb

diffuseness |dəˈfyo͞osnəs| noun

late Middle English: from Latin diffus- ‘poured out’, from the verb diffundere, from dis- ‘away’ + fundere ‘pour’; the adjective via French diffus or Latin diffusus ‘extensive’, from diffundere.

The verbs diffuse and defuse sound similar but have different meanings. Diffuse means, broadly, ‘disperse,’ while the nonliteral meaning of defuse is ‘reduce the danger or tension in.’ Thus sentences such as Cooper successfully diffused the situation are regarded as incorrect, while Cooper successfully defused the situation would be correct. However, such uses of diffuse are widespread, and can make sense: the image in, for example, only peaceful dialogue between the two countries could diffuse tension is not of making a bomb safe but of reducing something dangerous to particles and dispersing them harmlessly.