sesquipedalian

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Definitions (8)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A long word.
  2. adjective Given to or characterized by the use of long words.
  3. adjective Long and ponderous; polysyllabic.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

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Examples

  • What would we not barter of all the sesquipedalian epics of the Empire for a few pages written by Cornelius Gallus, a thousand for each! —  Vergil
  • It ran up and down the whole gamut of the English tongue, from sesquipedalian classicisms (which he generally used to heighten a comic effect) to one-syllabled words of the homeliest Anglo-Saxon. —  Sydney Smith
  • Burton, notes in hand, stood on the platform, facing the great audience, his brain heavy with arguments and bursting with sesquipedalian and sledge-hammer words to pulverize his exasperating opponent. —  The Life of Sir Richard Burton
  • “A Psychological Auto-Biography” would be too sesquipedalian a title; but —  A Publisher and His Friends
  • Not less familiar are the apt figurative illustrations of the woman beautiful above and an ugly fish below, the purple patch, the painter who would forever put in his cypress tree, the amphora that came out a pitcher, the dolphin in the wood and the boar in the waters, the sesquipedalian word, the mountains in travail and the birth of the ridiculous mouse, the plunge in medias res, the praiser of the good old times, the exclusion of sane poets from Helicon, the counsellor who himself can write nothing, but will serve as whetstone for genius, the nodding of Homer. —  Horace and His Influence
 

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Words tagged sesquipedalian

cacology · vernacular · lexicon · sesquipedalian · tmesis · epeolatry

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
 

Pronunciations
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/sɛskwɪpəˈdeɪlɪən/
by American Heritage
by pfallon

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