Describing the choice of words in a piece of writing or speech — how it was put, rather than what it said. It almost never stands alone. It arrives with a word in front telling you what kind of wording it was: carefully worded, badly worded, strongly worded, politely worded, vaguely worded. "A carefully worded reply" is one whose every word was weighed. "A strongly worded letter" is angry — one of the commonest pairings in news English, always meaning a formal complaint. Two of these carry a quiet extra meaning worth learning. "Carefully worded" often hints that the writer was hiding something or leaving themselves an escape route, not just being careful. "Badly worded" is a kind excuse: it lets you say the sentence caused trouble without saying the person meant harm. Worded is also simply the past of the verb "to word" — to put an idea into particular words: "I worded it differently the second time", "How shall we word the invitation?" That verb is not very common and is nearly always about a delicate message that could go wrong.