Definitions

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a very long word (a foot and a half long)

Etymologies

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Examples

  • · Vigna sesquipedalia: the asparagus or yardlong bean widely grown in Asia mainly for its immature pods.

    Chapter 7 1981

  • Cowpeas (Vigna sinensis, V. unguiculata, V. sesquipedalia)

    Chapter 7 1981

  • * Projicit ampullas et sesquipedalia verba: [11660] 1

    The Death of Death in the Death of Christ 1616-1683 1967

  • * Projicit ampullas et sesquipedalia verba: [7621] 1

    The Death of Death in the Death of Christ 1616-1683 1967

  • How soberly side by side they solved problems and looked up _sesquipedalia verba_ in big lexicons!

    Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 11, No. 22, January, 1873 Various

  • O'Connell knew well the use of sound in the vituperation, and having to deal with an ignorant scold, determined to overcome her in volubility, by using all the _sesquipedalia verba_ which occur in Euclid.

    Irish Wit and Humor Anecdote Biography of Swift, Curran, O'Leary and O'Connell Anonymous

  • Professor Whedon was a Methodist clergyman, lank and angular in form and feature with a "considerable sprinkling of vinegar at times in his ways of expressing himself," but, according to our oldest living graduate, "his commanding presence, imperative logic and _sesquipedalia verba_, always used with mathematical precision, hammered truth into us and clinched it."

    The University of Michigan Wilfred Shaw

  • Thank Heaven, we have not yet come to think that the highest form of wisdom is enshrined in the _sesquipedalia monstra_ of chemical formulae, still less in the extreme abstractions of mathematics.

    Nature Mysticism John Edward Mercer 1889

  • Upon which Dr. Johnson wrote one of his sesquipedalia verba [1102], which was pronounced by the scholars, and he was satisfied.

    Life of Johnson Boswell, James, 1740-1795 1887

  • We label him with two or three _sesquipedalia verba_, give his territorial range, describe his notes and his habits of nidification, and fancy we have rendered an account of the bird.

    Birds in the Bush Bradford Torrey 1877

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