Meaning

A long word..

Definitions by Sense

1. A long word.
2. A person who uses long words.
3. (of a word or words) Long; polysyllabic.
4. Pertaining to or given to the use of overly long words.

Example Sentences

“The fine old fellow,” as a Northern contemporary of ours patronizingly calls him, certainly rolled out his sesquipedalians with a majesty previously unknown, and gave a fine organ-like swell to his full-blow periods;

Fleet-streetese, the so-called English written to sell by the Fleet-streeter (q.v.), or baser sort of journalist: a mixture of sesquipedalians and slang, of phrases worn threadbare and phrases sprung from the kennel;

‘Sometimes we converse in ballad-rhymes, sometimes in Johnsonian sesquipedalians; at tea we condescend to riddles and charades.’

Don’t be a sesquipedalian! / Yes, you guessed right. A sesquipedalian is a person who enjoys long words.

Word-watchers, verbivores, and sesquipedalians love a challenge.

‘What sort of writer is the English professor looking for?’ / ‘He wants a sesquipedalian, of course.’

The most common use of "antidisestablishmentarianism" is as an example of a sesquipedalian word.

He would use the simplest, plainest language, he said to himself over and over again; but it is not always easy to use simple, plain language,—by no means so easy as to mount on stilts, and to march along with sesquipedalian words, with pathos, spasms, and notes of interjection.

Word Forms

• sesquipedalians
• more sesquipedalian
• most sesquipedalian

Synonyms for sesquipedalian

Antonyms for sesquipedalian

Related Words

When Should You Use Sesquipedalian?

Use sesquipedalian when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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