Belonging to, or in the style of, Richard Wagner (1813–1883), the German composer of very long, very grand operas — Tristan und Isolde, and above all the four-opera Ring cycle built on German myth. Note the spelling and sound: it is capital W, and English speakers say it 'vahg-NEER-ee-un', keeping the German V sound at the front. As a plain fact word it just means 'of Wagner': a Wagnerian soprano is a singer with the huge voice his operas demand; a Wagnerian tenor, a Wagnerian orchestra. As a noun it means a fan or scholar of Wagner. But the interesting use is the stretched one, and it is very common: Wagnerian means enormous in scale, heavy, dramatic, emotionally overwhelming, and going on far too long. A storm can be Wagnerian, a family argument can be Wagnerian, a three-hour company meeting can be described as Wagnerian. When it is used this way it is usually half a joke and half a complaint — the person is saying 'this was grander and longer than anything needed to be'. One thing an honest teacher should add: Wagner himself was a deeply unpleasant man who wrote nasty things about Jewish people, and Hitler loved his music, so the word can carry a shadow. Most of the time it is only about scale and drama, but you should know the shadow is there.

華格納（式）的——德國作曲家華格納的，或他那種風格的；引申指「氣勢磅礡、冗長、太over」的（常帶調侃）。當名詞是「華格納迷／華格納研究者」。發音要注意：W 發成 V，唸作 /vɑːɡˈnɪəriən/，不是「哇格」。