sesquipedalian

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“
His passion for polysyllables was very amusing, and he loved to astonish his hearers by his "sesquipedalian" phraseology.

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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)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (3)

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Examples (35)

  • “A Psychological Auto-Biography” would be too sesquipedalian a title; but “My Life Psychologically Related,” or “The Psychology of my Life,” or some such title, might be substituted. —  A Publisher and His Friends
  • You violate Godwin's Law that blatantly, you get what's coming to you, but I would have liked to have heard more actual arguments on both sides and less name-calling. rush is a coward. sesquipedalian on April 7, 2009 at —  Hot Air » Top Picks
  • Usually, he'd string a guy like that out to show that he's nowhere near being a conservative, but a Rino in Illinois. rush is a coward. sesquipedalian on April 7, 2009 at 10: 37 PM —  Hot Air » Top Picks
  • Sounds like a typical liberal to me. rush is a coward. sesquipedalian on April 7, 2009 at 10: 37 PM —  Hot Air » Top Picks
  • (I loved Buckley's sesquipedalian dexterity - a lost art in the anti-intellectual conservative set of W. and Sarah Palin.) —  Andrea Harner
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Words tagged sesquipedalian

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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.
 

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/sɛskwɪpəˈdeɪlɪən/
by American Heritage

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